Department for Transport

Road Signs and Markings

Mr Ian Liddell-Grainger: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, when his Department received the report by the Roads Signs Taskforce, chaired by the right hon. Member for Rutlands and Melton, published in March 2017.

Mr Ian Liddell-Grainger: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, if he will take steps to abolish the use of all road signs considered unnecessary in the recommendations made in the Roads Signs Taskforce report,  published in March 2017.

Mr Ian Liddell-Grainger: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, whether the next version of the Traffic Signs manual will include the results of the recommendations made in the Road Signs Task Force report, published in March 2017.

Mr Ian Liddell-Grainger: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what plans his Department has to incorporate proposals contained in the  Road Signs Task Force report, published in March 2017, into (a) policy, (b) guidelines and (c) legislation.

Mr Ian Liddell-Grainger: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, when his Department plans to respond to the proposals contained in the Road Signs Task Force report, published in March 2017.

Jesse Norman: The final version of the Taskforce report was received in August 2017 The Government receives many representations and keeps policies under review.

Department of Transport: Brexit

Seema Malhotra: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, whether his Department was consulted by the Department for Exiting the European Union on the economic impact assessments conducted for the UK leaving the EU.

Jesse Norman: The Government is carrying out a programme of comprehensive analytical work to inform our negotiating position with the EU; to define the UK’s future relationship with the EU, and inform our understanding of how EU exit will affect the UK’s domestic policies and frameworks. This work is a collaborative effort across government, and any analysis relating to transport has been prepared in full consultation between departments.

Cycling and Walking

Catherine West: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what the timetable is for the appointment of the Chair and expert panel of the Cycling and Walking Investment Strategy.

Jesse Norman: The Department continues to engage with a wide range of stakeholders on the delivery of the Cycling and Walking Investment Strategy. I met with representatives from the main walking and cycling organisations on 19 September to discuss various matters including how the Department might best benefit from their expertise in delivering the strategy, and have met regularly with Cycling and Walking stakeholders since then. In the light of this discussion, the Department has decided to establish a more informal stakeholder advisory group to ensure that cycling and walking policies are informed by regular dialogue with the relevant organisations. I will be meeting regularly with the group myself so that I can listen to and consider their views.

Highway Code

Catherine West: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, if he will bring forward legislative proposals to review the Highway Code so that motorists are obliged to give way on turning into or out of side roads to protect people crossing those roads.

Jesse Norman: The Highway Code already gives advice to look out for other road users when turning. When the Department carries out the next revision to the Code it will as usual undertake a consultation on any proposed changes. The forthcoming Cycle Safety Review may offer an opportunity to review proposals and evidence on this matter in relation to cyclists.

Aviation

Tom Brake: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what assessment his Department has made of the effect of no deal with the EU on the aviation sector when the UK leaves the EU; what plans he has to support the aviation sector in the event of no deal with the EU; and what discussions he has had with representatives from the aviation sector about the effect on the aviation sector of no deal with the EU.

Mr John Hayes: The Government is considering carefully all the potential implications arising from the UK’s exit from the EU. Securing liberal market access to EU markets is a high priority for the Department for Transport. The importance of air services to the UK economy is recognised across Government and we work closely with the aviation sector to ensure its ongoing success. This includes through securing a good deal with the EU. These discussions, as a matter of common sense, also include consideration of possible alternatives to a negotiated agreement, to ensure that no matter the outcome flights will continue.

Network Rail: Regulation

Andy McDonald: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what recent assessment he has made of the effectiveness of the Office for Rail and Road's regulation of Network Rail; and if he will make a statement.

Paul Maynard: The Department for Transport reviewed the effectiveness of the Office of Rail and Road’s (ORR) regulation of the railways in 2016. The conclusions were announced in March 2016:https://www.gov.uk/government/speeches/rail-reform-the-shaw-report The Government is committed to ensuring continued strong, independent economic and safety regulation of the railway. I welcome the work the ORR has been carrying out to scrutinise Network Rail’s plans for the next five year Control Period. The Secretary of State’s Written Ministerial Statement of 20 July 2017 refers to new statutory guidance to the ORR. This sets out our priorities for rail regulation. These include supporting the ORR’s work to improve Network Rail’s efficiency and improving the experience of users of the railway.

Transport Focus

Andy McDonald: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what recent assessment he has made of the effectiveness of Transport Focus; and if he will make a statement.

Paul Maynard: The Government is committed to ensuring that the interests of transport users are at the heart of transport policy. Transport Focus plays an important and effective role in actioning this using its evidence-based campaigning and research to influence decisions and drive change to get the best outcomes for passengers and road users. Ministers and officials meet regularly with Transport Focus to discuss a range of issues including its performance against the objectives set out in its annual workplan.

Railways: Bridges

Will Quince: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what information his Department holds on the (a) number of rail bridge strikes, (b) cost to his Department of those strikes and (c) amount recovered from insurers of vehicles involved in such strikes in each of the last three years for which data is available.

Paul Maynard: Oversized lorries hit rail bridges five times a day, almost 2000 every year. On average, each bridge strike costs the taxpayer £13,500, adding up to £23m a year in damages and delays. Network Rail recovered £6m in the last financial year from insurers for compensation for bridge strikes, while in previous years the recovery rate was typically between £3-5m. The rate of recovery is rising following legal precedents that allow full recovery of costs to compensate train operators for delays.

Air Transport Agreements

Alan Brown: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, pursuant to the Answer of 30 October 2017 to Question 108866, on aviation, how many meetings negotiating teams in his Department have had with (a) legal advisers, (b) CAA and (c) industry experts to discuss bilateral aviation negotiations in advance of negotiations with the EU.

Mr John Hayes: Teams within my Department meet on a regular and frequent basis with legal advisors, the CAA and industry experts to discuss matters relating to the UK’s withdrawal from the EU.

Kobe Steel: Misrepresentation

Andy McDonald: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, pursuant to the Answer of 24 October 2017 to Question 108695, on transport: iron and steel, when his Department plans to make that assessment; and if he will make a statement.

Mr John Hayes: The Department is currently developing a strategy to assess the potential use of Kobe iron and steel in the transport supply chain. The transport sector has a complex supply chain and the assessment needs to be undertaken in collaboration with the supply chain. As the strategy is currently under development the department is not yet able to provide a timescale.

Kobe Steel: Misrepresentation

Andy McDonald: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, pursuant to the Answer of 25 October 2017 to Question 108870, on Kobe Steel Europe, when his Department plans to make that assessment; and if he will make a statement.

Mr John Hayes: The Department is currently developing a strategy to assess the potential use of Kobe steel in the transport supply chain. The transport sector has a complex supply chain and the assessment needs to be undertaken in collaboration with the supply chain. As the strategy is currently under development the department is not able to provide an accurate timescale.

High Speed Two: Staff

Mrs Cheryl Gillan: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, how many staff at HS2 Ltd have (a) resigned (b) been made redundant and (c) been employed on (i) a fixed-term contract, (ii) a full-time basis and (iii) secondment in the most recent 12 month period for which data is available.

Paul Maynard: a) 170 employees have resigned within the period of 01/11/2016 until 31/10/2017 (excluding redundancies). b) 77 employees were redundant within the period of 01/11/2016 until 31/10/2017. c) i. 70 employees were employed on a fixed term contracts between 01/11/2016 – 31/10/2017 and currently HS2 Ltd has a total of 59 employees on Fixed term contracts at 31/10/2017. ii. 246 employees were employed full time between 01/11/2016 – 31/10/2017 and currently HS2 Ltd has a total of 1083 employees full time as at 31/10/2017 (including fixed term contracts).iii. 33 resources were seconded into HS2 between 01/11/2016 – 31/10/2017 and currently HS2 Ltd has a total of 84 resources seconded into HS2 as at 31/10/2017. HS2 Ltd also employed iv. 144 interim or temporary staff between 01/11/2016 – 31/10/2017 and currently has a total of 123 interim or temporary staff as at 31/10/2017; and v. 151 individuals through contracted Delivery and Development Partners between 01/11/2016 – 31/10/2017 and currently has a total of 233 individuals through contracted Delivery and Development Partners as at 31/10/2017.

Mersey Gateway Bridge: Tolls

Maria Eagle: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what steps he is taking to ensure that the tolls on the New Mersey Gateway bridge are clearly signposted for motorists crossing that bridge.

Jesse Norman: The Mersey Gateway is on the local highway network. Signage is the responsibility of the local highway authority – Halton Borough Council – and the operator of the Mersey Gateway Bridge – Merseyflow.

Mersey Gateway Bridge: Tolls

Maria Eagle: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what information his Department holds on the number of people who have been fined for failure to pay the toll on the New Mersey Gateway bridge since it opened; and if he will make a statement.

Jesse Norman: The Department for Transport holds no information on the number of people who have been fined for failure to pay the toll on the new Mersey Gateway Bridge since it opened. This is a matter for the scheme’s promoter - Halton Borough Council - and operator - Merseyflow.

Home Office

Modern Slavery Act 2015

Alex Norris: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, whether Ministers and officials of her Department have (a) received or (b) been offered data on non-compliance with section 54 of the Modern Slavery Act 2015.

Sarah Newton: A number of NGOs and other organisations are monitoring and analysing the ‘slavery and human trafficking statements’ being produced by businesses under section 54 of the Modern Slavery Act 2015. We have regular conversations with a range of these organisations who often provide or offer to provide data and analysis of the statements they have scrutinised, including their estimates of non-compliance. We are pleased that NGOs are using these statements to scrutinise businesses and hold them to account. The legislation was designed to harness this kind of pressure.

Police: Finance

Alex Norris: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what guidance she has issued on the proportion of local police budgets that should be devoted to (a) cyber crime and (b) counter-terrorism.

Mr Nick Hurd: The Government provides ring-fenced funding for Counter-Terrorism Policing of £707m in 2017/18. The Government has agreed up to £24m of additional funding for counter-terrorism policing this year to help meet the demands of Counter-terrorism to help fund the demands on Counter- Terrorism. The Government does not direct Police & Crime Commissioners or Chief Constables about the proportion of local funding that should be devoted to different crime types. Decisions on the operational deployment of resources are a matter for Chief Constables and Police and Crime Commissioners, who are held to account by the communities they serve.

Police: Ethnic Groups

Alex Norris: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps her Department has taken to increase BAME representation in the police since May 2016.

Mr Nick Hurd: Police forces that reflect the communities they serve are crucial to cutting crime in a modern diverse society. The police have made real improvements in diversity - there are a greater proportion of women and black and minority ethnic (BME) officers than ever before. However, the Government has been clear that there is more for forces to do. This Government’s reforms will allow for faster progress on equality and diversity; Police and Crime Commissioners (PCCs) and the College of Policing will play a key role in this. Central to our reforms was the establishment of the College of Policing as the professional body for policing, which is charged to set standards for policing. The College has delivered a major programme of work to address the recruitment, retention and progression of officers from BME and other under-represented groups in policing including sharing what works and publishing advice on the use of lawful positive action. In addition in August 2016 the College published a review of police initial recruitment containing recommendations designed to address the disproportionality seen in some forces in the outcomes of candidates from BME backgrounds. Through the use of data visualisations and force by force profiles on police.uk we are making it easier for the public to access the data they need to hold their force and PCC to account on how representative their force is compared to the local population. In July 2016 these diversity profiles were expanded to include the diversity of police staff, special constables and police community support officers, and also the ethnic and gender diversity of police officers by police rank. Following the publication of the Government’s Race Disparity Audit on 10 October the Home Secretary wrote to all Police and Crime Commissioners urging them to examine and address the findings, including those on police workforce diversity. Innovative schemes such as Direct Entry, Fast Track and Police Now are making the police workforce more diverse than ever before; showing that we can attract the brightest and best into policing, whilst introducing new perspectives into policing some of the country’s most challenging neighbourhoods. Police Now is a flagship police gradate recruitment scheme which started in the Metropolitan Police. With the support of Home Office funding has become an independent organisation, expanding to 19 forces in 2017. Decisions on when and how to recruit individuals are for the chief officer of a police force. It is important that they use equalities legislation, including positive action provisions, to make better progress in terms of recruitment of under-represented groups. While the Government can set expectations around increasing police diversity we are clear that it is local police leaders working with the College of Policing and the National Police Chiefs’ Council who are best placed to make this a reality. This includes Police and Crime Commissioners holding police chiefs to account and taking an active role in ensuring their force is representation of the communities it serves.

Slavery

Alex Norris: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many companies published a Modern Slavery Statement in accordance with the provisions of section 54 of the Modern Slavery Act 2015 in (a) 2016 and (b) 2017.

Sarah Newton: The Government does not maintain a central register of ‘slavery and human trafficking statements’ published in accordance with section 54 of the Modern Slavery Act 2015. Two independent repository websites have been set up to collate these statements. The Government is not involved in running or funding either website. Both websites make different estimates of the total number of statements published so far. The latest estimates can be accessed online at http://www.modernslaveryregistry.org/ and https://tiscreport.org/

Firearms: Licensing

Jeremy Lefroy: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, when her Department will publish its response to the firearms licensing fees public consultation.

Mr Nick Hurd: The Government sought views on proposals for new fees for firearms licences issued by the Home Office and the Scottish Government in a public consultation, which ran from 12 January to 9 March. A Government response will be published in due course.

Emergencies

Norman Lamb: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, when she plans to respond to the twelfth report of the Science and Technology Select Committee of 2016-17, Science in emergencies: chemical, biological, radiological or nuclear incidents, published on 5 April 2017, HC 163.

Mr Ben  Wallace: The response had been delayed due to the General election but a response has now been sent to the Chair of the Science and Technology Select Committee on Wednesday 1st November.

Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy

Tourism

Justin Tomlinson: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what comparative assessment he has made of the contribution of (a) the licensed hospitality sector and (b) other sectors to the economy.

Claire Perry: The latest data available shows that accommodation services and food and beverage services (both licensed and unlicensed) accounted for around 3.0% of total UK gross value added and 6.7% of total UK employment in 2016.Economics Estimates of Accommodation and Food and Beverage Services 2016 GVA (£bn)% of UK EconomyEmployment (000’s)% of UK EconomyAccommodation Services13.60.85141.5Food and Beverage Services39.22.21,7845.2Total52.83.02,2416.7Source: ONS GDP(O) Low Level Aggregates, Employee Jobs, Self-Employed JobsUnfortunately data on accommodation services is not subdivided by licensed and unlicensed status but approximate estimates for licensed restaurant, licensed clubs and public houses and bars are available from the Annual Business Survey. Currently the latest data available from this source pertains to 2015.Licensed Food and Beverage Services 2015 GVA 2015 (£bn)Employment 2015 (‘000s)Licensed Restaurants7.6442Licensed Clubs0.887Public Houses and Bars9.2450Source: ONS Annual Business Survey 2015

Tidal Lagoons Independent Review

Jo Stevens: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, how much was spent on commissioning and supporting the Hendry review.

Richard Harrington: The Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy estimates that, excluding the salaries of seconded civil servants, the costs incurred by the Hendry Review were approximately £120,000.

Land: Registration

Jon Trickett: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what estimate he has made of the cost per digital transaction of updates to the land register in October 2018.

Margot James: HM Land Registry will estimate costs per digital transaction for the financial year 2018/19 as part of its annual business and budget planning.

Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy: Labour Turnover

Jon Trickett: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what proportion of civil service posts in his Department was vacant for a week or longer since his Department received its current name; and what the annual turnover rate for civil servants in his Department has been in that period.

Margot James: I refer the hon. Member to the answer I gave him on 14 March 2017 to Question 66682 regarding the proportion of positions vacant for a week or longer within BEIS:http://www.parliament.uk/business/publications/written-questions-answers-statements/written-question/Commons/2017-03-06/66682/.This data is not held centrally and would incur disproportionate costs to calculate as each business area manages its vacancies.As the Department had not existed for 12 months at the time the previous answer was provided, an average turnover rate for the entire period remains unavailable. The current turnover rate for BEIS is 15%.

Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy: Travel

Jon Trickett: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, which tickets relating to which journeys set out in the transparency release, entitled BEIS ministerial gifts, hospitality, travel and meetings, April to June 2017, published on 13 October 2017, were (a) first, (b) business, (c) economy and (d) any other class.

Margot James: The journeys listed below were published in the April to June 2017 data and the class of travel has been added to the final column. MinisterDate(s) of tripDestinationPurpose of tripMode of transportAccompanied by spouse, family member(s) or friend at public expense?Total cost (for minister only) including all visas, accommodation, travel, meals etc (£)Class of travelSecretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, The Rt Hon Greg Clark MP04 to 08 April 2017South Korea, Seoul, India New DelhiTo attend Energy Summit (Seoul). Strengthening economic engagement between India and UKScheduled flightNo£9,312Business class for outbound and return, Economy class for South Korea to New DelhiMinister of State for Universities, Science, Research and Innovation, Jo Johnson MP02 to 04 May 2017Malta, LuqaTo attend the Informal Competition CouncilScheduled flightNo£325Economy classMinister of State for Climate Change and Industry, Nick Hurd MP (01 to 11 June 2017)09 to 10 April 2017Italy, RomeTo attend G7 Energy Ministerial MeetingScheduled flightNo£980Economy classMinister of State for Climate Change and Industry, Claire Perry MP (from 12 to 30 June 2017)18 to 19 June 2017LuxembourgTo attend Environment CouncilScheduled flightNo£1,604Business classParliamentary Under Secretary of State, Lord Prior of Brampton29-May-2017BrusselsTo attend the EU Competition Council MeetingScheduled flightNo£293Economy classParliamentary Under Secretary of State, Lord Prior of Brampton06 to 12 April 2017USA, Boston, PittsburghTo attend meetings with various businesses and academics relating to the Industrial StrategyScheduled flightNo£13,609Business class for outbound and return, Economy class for Pittsburgh to BostonParliamentary Under Secretary of State, Minister for Energy and Industry, Richard Harrington MP (from 14 June to 30 June 2017)18 to 20 June 2017France, ParisTo attend the Paris Air showEurostarNo£164Standard PremierParliamentary Under Secretary of State, Minister for Energy and Industry, Richard Harrington MP (from 14 June to 30 June 2017)25 to 26 June 2017LuxembourgTo attend Energy CouncilScheduled flightNo£717Economy class

Cost of Energy Independent Review

Caroline Lucas: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, pursuant to the Answer of 31 October 2017 to Questions 109428, 109477, 109380, 109381, 109382, 109383, 109426 and 109427, on Cost of Energy Independent Review, whether officials of his Department drafted the document Professor Helm-declaration of interest published on 6 August 2017.

Claire Perry: I refer the hon Member to the reply I gave to Question UIN 107372.

Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy: Nurseries

Tracy Brabin: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what childcare facilities his Department makes available for staff; how much his Department spent (a) overall and (b) per child on those childcare facilities in the last year; and how many staff members use those childcare facilities.

Margot James: The Department organises the Westminster Holiday Play Scheme. This is a childcare facility that takes place during school holidays. It is open to children from the age of 4 years and 9 months up to 15 years’ old. It is run on behalf of a consortium of departments through a contract led and administered by BEIS. It currently operates at 4 London locations. There is a cost of £35 per day per child. The Department meets £18 of this cost for its members of staff with parents/guardians paying the remaining £17.Between September 2016 and August 2017 (inclusive) BEIS spent £10,244 on the play scheme. The Department does not have details on the number of individual staff members who made use of the scheme or on the amounts spent per child.

Nuclear Fusion: Research

Layla Moran: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what budget has been allocated to research on nuclear fusion until 29 March 2019.

Joseph Johnson: I refer the Hon Member to the answer I gave to Question UIN 110155.

Attorney General

International Law

Lucy Powell: To ask the Attorney General, how the Government complies with Article 16 of the International Law Commission's Articles on the Responsibility of States for Internationally Unlawful Acts, with specific reference to the sharing of intelligence to identify targets with our coalition partners.

Jeremy Wright: Whilst the International Law Commission’s Articles on the Responsibility of States for Internationally Unlawful Acts have not been adopted as a treaty, the Government considers that Article 16 generally reflects customary international law. The Government is committed to upholding international law and when cooperating with other States the Government will always seek to ensure that its actions remain lawful at all times. The Government does not comment on specific matters concerning the sharing of intelligence.

Department for International Development

Department for International Development: Travel

Jon Trickett: To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, whether the ticket for the journey set out in the transparency release, entitled DFID Parliamentary Under Secretary of State, Wharton return: April to June 2017, which was taken by the Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for International Development and former hon. Member for Stockton South was (a) first, (b) business, (c) economy or (d) any other class.

Rory Stewart: The ticket for this journey was in business class.

Department for International Development: Travel

Jon Trickett: To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, whether the ticket for the journey referred to in the transparency release, entitled DFID Minister of State Stewart, return: April to June 2017, which was taken by the Minister of State for International Development and hon. Member for Penrith and The Border was (a) first, (b) business, (c) economy or (d) any other class.

Rory Stewart: The ticket for this journey was in business class.

Department for International Development: Visits Abroad

Jon Trickett: To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, whether tickets for the trips to (a) Ethiopia and Somalia and (b) Brussels set out in the transparency return, entitled DFID Secretary of State return: April to June 2017, were (i) first, (ii) business, (iii) economy and (iv) any other class.

Rory Stewart: The ticket for this journey was in business class.

Department for Education

Universities: Finance

Royston Smith: To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what the average contribution from the public purse to each Russell Group university is for 2017-18.

Joseph Johnson: This information is not available in the format requested.The Higher Education Statistics Authority (HESA) is responsible for collecting and publishing official statistics on the sources of income that each university receives. This is collected retrospectively and so the latest year that financial data is available for is 2015/16. Aggregate data for the sector can be viewed here: https://www.hesa.ac.uk/data-and-analysis/publications/finances-2015-16/introduction.Information for the 2017/18 academic year will be published by HESA in spring 2019.

Schools: Fire Extinguishers

Royston Smith: To ask the Secretary of State for Education, if she will make an assessment of the potential merits of making it compulsory for all schools to have sprinklers installed.

Nick Gibb: The Government takes the safety of pupils and teachers very seriously. All schools have to follow strict fire safety regulations, including having a Fire Risk Assessment, designed to ensure they are as safe as possible and well prepared in the event of a fire.All new school building projects must comply with Building Regulations, including on fire safety, and this is independently certified by Building Control or an Approved Inspector before buildings are occupied. Where sprinklers are deemed necessary to keep pupils and staff safe, following an assessment of risk at the design stage, or to meet local planning requirements, they should be fitted.Following the tragic Grenfell fire, the government has launched a Public Inquiry and an independent review of Building Regulations and Fire Safety. Alongside the rest of Government, we will take forward any relevant recommendations.

Schools: Finance

Dr Rosena Allin-Khan: To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what the change will be in funding to schools from baseline block funding allocation 2015-16 to academic year 2019-20 of the implementation of the National Funding Formula in (a) Tooting constituency, (b) Wandsworth Borough Council, (c) Greater London Authority and (d) the UK in (i) nominal and (ii) real terms.

Nick Gibb: The schools block funding allocation in 2015-16 was £32.2bn for England and £148m for Wandsworth local authority.We have now published full detail of the school and high needs national funding formulae, and the impact they will have for every local authority here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/national-funding-formula-tables-for-schools-and-high-needs.In 2019-20 England’s schools block allocation would rise to £33.6bn, based on pupil numbers and characteristics from 2017-18. The actual allocation for 2019-20 will be adjusted to take account of more recent pupil number and characteristic data. On the same basis, Wandsworth would receive £155m and Tooting would receive £61.2m. We do not allocate funding on a regional basis so we do not calculate statistics for the Greater London Authority.The independent Institute for Fiscal Studies have said, the additional £1.3 billion we are investing in schools funding means that overall funding per pupil across the country will now be maintained in real terms up to 2020. We do not calculate real terms funding estimates at a local level.

Schools: Oxfordshire

Mr Edward Vaizey: To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment her Department has made of the effect on the budgets of Oxfordshire primary and secondary schools of (a) changes to business rates, (b) the apprenticeship levy, (c) changes to national insurance contributions and (d) the withdrawal of the education services grant.

Nick Gibb: The National Audit Office published an estimate of the cost pressures faced by schools between 2015-16 and 2019-20 in December 2016, available at: https://www.nao.org.uk/report/financial-sustainability-in-schools/. On 17 July 2017, my Rt Hon. Friend, the Secretary of State, announced that the Department will provide an additional £1.3 billion for schools and high needs across 2018-19 and 2019-20, on top of the spending plans considered in the NAO report. Core funding for schools will rise from almost £41 billion in 2017-18 to £42.4 billion in 2018-19, and £43.5 billion in 2019‑20. This represents an increase of over 6%. As the Institute for Fiscal Studies has confirmed, this means that overall funding for schools and high needs will be maintained in real terms per pupil over the next two years. We will be publishing an updated assessment of cost pressures for schools, taking account of this additional funding, which will include consideration of the withdrawal of the Education Services Grant and the introduction of the apprenticeship levy, and any planned changes to national insurance. Schools are funded to meet the costs of business rates on the basis of actual charges.

Apprentices: Taxation

Jo Platt: To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what estimate she has made of the number of apprenticeships at companies benefiting from the apprenticeship levy by (a) household income, (b) region and (c) age.

Jo Platt: To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what estimate her Department has made of the number of employers that benefit from the apprenticeship levy; and how many apprentices have remained at their place of employment after their apprenticeship has concluded.

Jo Platt: To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what estimate her Department has made of the number of apprentices who have secured apprenticeships at a company benefiting from the apprenticeship levy in (a) Leigh, (b) Wigan and (c) Greater Manchester.

Anne Milton: Data on numbers of apprenticeship starts by age, region, local authority and constituency is available through the Further Education Data library tables: https://www.gov.uk/government/statistical-data-sets/fe-data-library-apprenticeships. We do not hold data on the number of starts by household income. Data on the number of levy paying employers that are registered on the apprenticeship service, and can therefore access and benefit from levy funds, is available (as reported to the end of August 2017) here: https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/apprenticeship-service-registrations-and-commitments-august-2017. These statistics are published on a monthly basis. We do not hold this data for non-levy paying employers as their apprenticeship training is funded via contracts with training providers. Recent data show that over 90 per cent of apprentices currently go into work or further training at the end of their apprenticeship, the majority of these with the same employer.

Academies: Inspections

Angela Rayner: To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether she plans to allow Ofsted to inspect multi-academy trusts.

Mr Robert Goodwill: Ofsted currently makes a valuable contribution to the Department’s understanding of multi academy trust (MAT) performance through focused inspections of schools within the same MAT. The Department is also working with Ofsted to develop new approaches to better scrutinise MATs. We will publish details in due course.

ICT: Teachers

Jim Shannon: To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps the Government is taking to enhance collaboration between the (a) Network of Teaching Excellence in Computer Science and (b) other programmes in England and equivalent computing teacher support programmes in the devolved nations.

Nick Gibb: The Network of Excellence for Computer Science Teaching is a Department funded programme which provides high-quality continuing professional development to existing teachers in England.This programme is contracted to the British Computing Society who have members and local branches across the whole of the UK. Through its management of Computing At Schools, a network of local hubs for computing science teachers across the UK, the British Computing Society ensures that the Network of Excellence is part of a collaborative UK wide network. The Network of Excellence responds to local needs through collaboration with wider programmes such as the STEM learning centre in York, the London mayor’s digital programmes, the Raspberry Pi Foundation and Apps for Good.

Collective Spirit Free School Oldham

Jim McMahon: To ask the Secretary of State for Education, if she will take steps to publish the internal audit reports carried out by the Education and Skills Funding Agency on the Collective Spirit Free School, Oldham.

Mr Robert Goodwill: The Education and Skills Funding Agency (ESFA) does not intend to publish the report. As part of routine business, the ESFA carried out a fact finding review in August 2016 at Collective Spirit Free School. In accordance with published policy, these routine reports are not released.

Adult Education: Finance

Ian Austin: To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what proportion of Adult Community Learning funding has been spent on (a) English, (b) mathematics and (c) ESOL courses in (i) the UK and (ii) London.

Ian Austin: To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how many learners funded through the Adult Community Learning budget studied   (a) English, (b) mathematics and (c) ESOL courses in (i) the UK and (ii) London in the last 12 months.

Anne Milton: We do not hold information on English, mathematics and English for Speakers of Other Languages (ESOL) courses funded through the Adult Community Learning budget. In addition, since 2016/17 this provision is funded through the Adult Education Budget. Across wider adult education budget lines, data on funded learner participation in English, mathematics and ESOL courses are published for England and London. The latest published adult (19 and over) participation figures for England (provisional full year data for the 2016/17 academic year) are as follows: English 536,700Mathematics 529,300ESOL 114,400 Note: we do not hold data for the UK.  The latest published adult (19 and over) participation figures for London (final full year data for the 2015/16 academic year) are as follows: English 88,450Mathematics 75,850ESOL 42,720Participation in Community learning is recorded by theme rather than specific subject. Latest published figures for England are: Community Learning Participation 2016/17 (provisional) Total Learners531,800of which Personal and Community Development Learning414,400of which Neighbourhood Learning in Deprived Communities48,600of which Family English, Maths and Language32,700of which Wider Family Learning52,600 Figures for London are not published. Participation figures provide the distinct count of learners; a learner can participate in multiple types of learning, but will only be counted once in the overall total learner figures.

Schools: North Cornwall

Scott Mann: To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment she has made of the adequacy of school funding in North Cornwall constituency after the implementation of the national funding formula.

Nick Gibb: The introduction of the national funding formulae is supported by significant extra funding of £1.3bn across 2018-19 and 2019-20, over and above the budget announced at the 2015 spending review. Core funding for schools and high needs will rise from almost £41 billion in 2017-18 to £42.4 billion in 2018-19 and £43.5 billion in 2019-20. This will allow us to maintain school and high needs funding in real terms per pupil for the next two years. Overall, schools in North Cornwall would be allocated a 4.3% increase in their funding if the national funding formula were implemented in full, with gains of 2.0% in 2018-19 and 3.1% in 2019-20, over their 2017-18 baselines, as we transition towards the formula. Full details on the provisional allocations for local authorities and schools can be found here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/national-funding-formula-tables-for-schools-and-high-needs.

Department for Education: Brexit

Seema Malhotra: To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether her Department was consulted by the Department for Exiting the European Union on the economic impact assessments conducted for the UK leaving the EU.

Mr Robert Goodwill: The government is carrying out an ongoing programme of comprehensive analytical work that will inform our negotiating position with the EU, to define our deep and special partnership with the EU and inform our understanding of how EU exit will affect the UK’s domestic policies and frameworks. The Department for Education is working with officials across government, in close coordination with the Department for Exiting the European Union, to ensure the delivery of a holistic programme of analysis across government.

Health

Chris Ruane: To ask the Secretary of State for Education, if she will make an assessment of the relevance for public health policy of the recommendations in the What Works Centre for Wellbeing recent report, Happy people wear seat belts: wellbeing and risk-taking, published on 6 October 2017.

Mr Robert Goodwill: The wellbeing of our children and young people is a key priority for this Department. We want all children to have the opportunity to fulfil their full potential and to develop into adults who are confident and productive members of society.Schools have an important role to play in supporting the resilience and mental health of children and young people. The Department has funded the PSHE Association to publish guidance and a set of age appropriate lesson plans for teaching about mental health issues. We have published a blueprint for school counselling services which provides schools with practical, evidence-based advice on how to deliver high quality school-based counselling. Advice has been issued on behaviour and mental health which helps teachers identify those in need, provide effective early support and understand when a referral to a specialist mental health service may be necessary. The Department has funded the development of MindEd, a free online resource which allows all those working with children and young people to access information on a range of mental health issues.

Schools: Capital Investment

Chris Ruane: To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what estimate she has made of the amount of capital funding allocated to school building programmes by (a) local authority and (b) parliamentary constituency in each year for which data is available.

Nick Gibb: The Government has committed to invest more than £23bn in the school estate between 2016-17 and 2020-21. This includes a combination of formula and bid-based allocations to schools, local authorities and academy trusts and centrally delivered programmes.Allocations include School Condition Allocations, Devolved Formula Capital, Basic Need payments and the bid-based Condition Improvement Fund. Other funding is available through centrally-delivered programmes, including the Free Schools programme and the £4.4bn Priority Schools Building Programme. Revenue funding can also be used for capital purposes.Data is not available by constituency, but links to data publications for our main capital funding programmes can be found below, which include data by local authority for funding allocations. The Department also publishes final capital costs for all free schools on the gov.uk website once projects are at practical completion and are no longer commercially sensitive. A link to this information is also provided below.School Condition Allocations and Devolved Formula Capital:https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/capital-allocationsThe Condition Improvement Fund:https://www.gov.uk/guidance/condition-improvement-fundThe Priority School Building Programme:https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/priority-school-building-programme-psbpBasic need:https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/basic-need-allocationsFree schools:https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/capital-funding-for-open-free-schools.

Teachers: Greater London

Ian Austin: To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how many teachers in London were no longer teaching within (a) three, (b) five and (c) 10 years of qualifying.

Nick Gibb: The information requested is not available in the format requested.The retention rates for qualified teachers in England who began their employment in each of the last ten years was published in Table 8 of the ‘School Workforce in England: November 2016’ in June 2017: https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/school-workforce-in-england-november-2016. Regional versions of these statistics are not available. The Department has published information at regional level on the percentage of teachers who leave each year. These statistics were published in tables 2.1a and 2.1b in the ‘Local analysis of teacher workforce: 2010 to 2015’:https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/local-analysis-of-teacher-workforce-2010-to-2015.

Adult Education: European Social Fund

Ian Austin: To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how much funding the European Social Fund has contributed to adult education projects in each region in the last year.

Anne Milton: The European Social Fund is allocated to the Local Enterprise Partnerships (LEPs). The Education and Skills Funding Agency offers LEPs the service of procuring and managing European Social Fund contracts which deliver education and training on behalf of the LEPs. The table below aggregates the LEP area expenditure into regions. A more detailed breakdown by LEP area is in the attached spreadsheet. RegionESF Paid to Providers in Academic Year Aug-16 to Jul-17 £mTotal ESF Contracted with Providers Apr-16 to July-18 £mEast Midlands£7.27£50.39East of England£3.40£18.85London£28.86£82.19North East£10.83£46.86North West£13.75£84.37South East£4.78£32.07South West£5.72£39.45West Midlands£5.86£45.70Yorkshire and The Humber£5.53£42.10Grand Total£86.01£441.97Figures rounded to the nearest £10,000.The Big Lottery Fund and the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) are also organisations with which LEPs can agree to deliver other projects eligible for European Social Fund. Additionally, Her Majesty’s Prison & Probation Service delivers European Social Fund projects. Other organisations may make direct bids to deliver European Social Fund to the European Social Fund Managing Authority (which is part of the DWP).



LEP spend by region
(Excel SpreadSheet, 31.13 KB)

Adult Education: Greater London

Ian Austin: To ask the Secretary of State for Education, if she will list the approved adult education budget providers which deliver in London but are not located in London; and what estimate she has made of the spend of delivery by those providers (a) in total, (b) to residents in London and (c) to residents outside of London in 2015-16.

Anne Milton: The information requested is contained within the attached file. This dataset includes a list of providers who have delivered to residents of London, where the providers head office address is not in London. There were 590 approved adult education budget providers located outside of London, of which 303 delivered to residents of London in 2015/16. The source for this data is the Individualised Learner Record 2015/16 return, the final funding claims 2015/16 return and the Earnings Adjustment Statement 2015/16.



110007 Approved adult education budget providers 
(Excel SpreadSheet, 50.69 KB)

Adult Education: Greater London

Ian Austin: To ask the Secretary of State for Education, if she will publish a list of all the approved adult education budget providers which deliver in London but are not located in London; and what estimate she has made of the number of learners that live in London for which those providers delivered teaching in 2015-16.

Anne Milton: The information requested about approved adult education providers is contained within the attached file. This dataset includes a list of providers who have delivered to residents of London, where the providers head office address is not in London. We do not hold the specific data requested on the number of learners for the 2015/16 academic year. The department has previously published figures on learning aims delivered to individuals living in each local authority by provider, qualification level and type of provision, which are accessible via the links below. The latest published data for the 2013/14 academic year can be viewed via: https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/524139/Delivery_LA_Provider_LA_Level_1314_FS_Final_v2.xls. The latest published data for the 2012/13 academic year can be viewed via: https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/349330/Jan14_Learners_Home_Local_Authority_District_Provider_Level_1213.zip. The figures highlight the proportion of provision delivered within the authority of where the learner lives and the proportion delivered outside the authority.



Adult education providers
(Excel SpreadSheet, 55.53 KB)

Educational Institutions: Fraud

Ian Austin: To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps her Department is taking to prevent private providers operating as bogus colleges.

Anne Milton: Further education (FE) providers receiving public funds are monitored by the Education and Skills Funding Agency (ESFA) and placed on a register for funded organisations. Ofsted only provide inspections for established FE institutions. Individuals wishing to cross-reference a course or provider that is nationally recognised can visit the National Careers Service website: https://nationalcareersservice.direct.gov.uk/course-directory/home. The ESFA will investigate complaints of bogus educational institutions. Those concerned about a particular organisation can also register their complaint with the Citizens Advice and Trading Standards.

Unemployment: Young People

Ian Austin: To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how many young people are or have been in care were unemployed (a) nationally and (b) in London in each of the last five years.

Mr Robert Goodwill: I am sorry, but the department does not collect data on young people who are in care and who are unemployed.For care leavers, the department collects information on their activity on or around their birthday, which includes whether they were not in education, training or employment. Due to changes in the cohort for whom data was collected, figures for 19 to 21 year olds are available from the year ending 31 March 2014. Information on care leavers aged 17 and 18 years old was collected for the first time for the year ending 31 March 2016 and is published as experimental statistics. Figures are provided in the table below. Number of care leavers aged 19 to 21 years old who were not in education, training or employment1, 2Years ending 31 March 2014 to 2017  2014201520162017Numbers England 10,25010,34010,46010,870London1,9401,9301,9302,120  Source: SSDA903 Numbers have been rounded to the nearest 10.Care leavers are defined as children who had been looked after for at least 13 weeks which began after they reached the age of 14 and ended after they reached the age of 16. Figures exclude children who were looked after under an agreed series of short term placements, those who have died since leaving care, those who have returned home to parents or someone with parental responsibility for a continuous period of at least 6 months and those whose care was transferred to another local authority. Experimental statistics Number of care leavers aged 17 and 18 years old who were not in education, training or employment1, 2, 3Years ending 31 March 2016 and 201720162017Numbers   England 3,0603,290London600680Source: SSDA903Numbers have been rounded to the nearest 10.Figures are experimental statistics to reflect we believe information was not reported for around 11% of 18 year old care leavers in 2016, the first year. Users should be cautious interpreting these figures.3. Figures exclude children who were looked after under an agreed series of short term placements, those who have died since leaving care, those who have returned home to parents or someone with parental responsibility for a continuous period of at least 6 months and those whose care was transferred to another local authority.

Offences against Children

Louise Haigh: To ask the Secretary of State for Education, when her Department plans to publish its response to the Home Office public consultation, Reporting and acting on child abuse and neglect; and if she will pay particular regard to mandatory reporting and acting on child sexual abuse and neglect in that response.

Mr Robert Goodwill: The consultation 'Reporting and acting on child abuse and neglect' sought views on a mandatory duty to report child abuse and neglect and an alternative duty focused on taking appropriate action, as well as the effects of embedding current government reforms. The consultation was a broad exercise which invited views on a range of different models, including the potential scope of any duty and the types of abuse such a duty might pertain to. Tackling both child sexual abuse and neglect remains a key focus of the government’s reforms to create a world class child protection system, where the needs of individual children are identified early and they get the help and support they require as soon as possible to keep them safe. The government has committed to laying a report before Parliament on the outcome of the consultation. Submissions are being considered and a government response will be published in due course. Just as it was right to consider in depth the evidence around these questions, it is important that we apply equally careful consideration to formulating our response in such a complex policy area, with such vitally important implications for the safety and welfare of children.

Children: Day Care

Lucy Powell: To ask the Secretary of State for Education, pursuant to the Answer of 19 October 2017 to Question 107980, on children: day care, how many of the valid 30 hours codes have been generated by successful applications in each local authority area.

Mr Robert Goodwill: On 12 October 2017, the Department for Education published data that set out the number of eligibility codes issued for 30 hours’ free childcare by 31 August 2017 and the number of codes validated by 9 October 2017. This release of data can be found at https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/651185/30-hours_childcare_management_information_October_2017_update.pdf. Please find attached a table on the information you have requested regarding the number of 30 hours’ free childcare eligibility codes generated in each local council.The data source for this information is the Department for Education Eligibility Childcare System.The data is a snapshot of the live Eligibility Checking System as of the 5 September.The figures exclude all eligibility codes issued after 31 August, the deadline for applying for a 30 hours place for the autumn term.Local councils and providers can continue to validate codes for the autumn term childcare places during the term, providing the code was applied for by 31 August. Therefore, the number and percentage of codes validated is still changing and will increase during the term.It is the responsibility of local councils to assess supply and demand of free entitlement places at a local level. Additional codes have been validated since 9 October & local authority data will be published in due course.



Table on 30 hours free childcare 
(Word Document, 31.49 KB)

Pupils: Absenteeism

Justin Tomlinson: To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment she has made of the merits of allowing parents to take children out of school and on educational visits during term-time.

Mr Robert Goodwill: The government’s priority is to reduce overall school absence. The evidence shows that every extra day of school missed can affect a pupil's chances of achieving good GCSEs, which has a lasting effect on their life chances. A pupil who is absent is also liable to interrupt the education of other pupils and to increase the workload on teachers, as schools seek to ensure that absent pupils catch up with work that has been missed.We acknowledge that some parents may wish to take their children out of school for educational visits during term time; however, it would not always be possible to ensure these visits were conducted in support of the curriculum. Such visits would also be very different to excursions arranged by the school, which are conducted in an educational context where pupils are under the supervision and control of teachers, and are required to adhere to school discipline and behaviour policies.Whilst head teachers of maintained schools have the ability to decide when exceptional circumstances allow for a child to be absent; our position is that no child should be taken out of school without good reason.

Academic Year

Justin Tomlinson: To ask the Secretary of State for Education, if she will make an assessment of the German model for varying  school term dates by region.

Mr Robert Goodwill: We agree that school term dates should not be determined at a national level. We believe that head teachers, school governors and local councils are best placed to set school term and holiday dates in the interests of the pupils and parents at their school. As such, term dates are currently determined locally by schools and local councils. Governing bodies and councils must set dates in line with the requirements of the length of the school year as set out in the Education (School Day and School Year) (England) Regulations 1999. Academy trusts (of academies and free schools) are free to make changes to term and holiday dates. We expect term dates to be arranged in a way that helps pupils to learn and gives them time away from school. While there is no formal process for coordination of term dates, in practice many schools and local councils work together, and with other areas. They do this because of practical constraints such as the timing of examinations and local areas’ desire to minimise any disruption to parents. If schools do decide to change their term dates, they are required to act reasonably; giving parents notice and considering the impact on those affected – including pupils, teachers, the local community and parents’ work commitments and childcare options for both parents and teachers.

Truancy: Fines

Justin Tomlinson: To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how many fines have been issued to parents for non-attendance at school by a child in each of the last five years.

Mr Robert Goodwill: Statistics on the parental responsibility measures used by schools and local councils to improve poor pupil attendance including penalty notices are published by the Department, and are available at: https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/parental-responsibility-measures-2015-to-2016-academic-year. The academic year 2015/16 is the latest year for which data is available.Penalty notices issued to parents for their children’s non-attendance at school 2011/122012/132013/142014/152015/16Number of penalty notices41,22452,37098,259151,125157,879

Apprentices

Mr Jim Cunningham: To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how many apprenticeship starts there were in (a) May, (b) June and (c) July 2017.

Anne Milton: The table below provides provisional figures of the number of apprenticeship starts in England between May and July 2017 by month.  2016/17 Academic Year (provisional) MayJuneJulyApprenticeship Starts12,40013,10018,100  Notes: Figures are rounded to the nearest hundred. We currently publish apprenticeship starts on a quarterly basis. However, the Department is undergoing a review of the further education and skills statistical first release and as part of this, monthly breakdowns may be provided in future. Further details regarding pprenticeship starts can be viewed via:https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/further-education-and-skills-october-2017

Pupils: Absenteeism

Justin Tomlinson: To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment she has made of the effect of each day of school missed on a pupil's attainment record.

Mr Robert Goodwill: The latest evidence on the link between pupil absence and attainment at Key Stage 2 (KS2) and Key Stage 4 (KS4) is available in the “Absence and attainment at Key Stages 2 and 4: 2013 to 2014” research report at https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/absence-and-attainment-at-key-stages-2-and-4-2013-to-2014.The analysis of the link between overall absence (and individual reasons for absence) and attainment when taking prior attainment and pupil characteristics into account showed that, for each KS2 and KS4 measure, overall absence had a statistically significant negative link to attainment – i.e. every extra day missed was associated with a lower attainment outcome. Results from the modelling carried out are available in section 4.4.1 of the report.

Department for Education: Departmental Responsibilities

Gordon Marsden: To ask the Secretary of State for Education, when the Minister for Universities, Science, Research and Innovation last met with (a) Universities UK, (b) University and College Union, (c) the Sutton Trust and (d) Unison.

Joseph Johnson: I met with Universities UK on 22 May 2017 and spoke at their conference on 7 September 2017. UUK is represented at the high level stakeholder working group on EU exit, universities, research and innovation, which I chair and which last met on 19 October 2017. I also met with UUK at the Conservative Party Conference in Manchester.I met with the University and College Union on 19 October 2016.I met with the Sutton Trust on 17 November 2016.I have not held a recent meeting with Unison.

Vocational Education: Reviews

Gordon Marsden: To ask the Secretary of State for Education, with reference to her Department's press release of 31 October 2017, when she plans to release further details of the review of higher-level technical education.

Anne Milton: This policy review looks across Levels 4 and 5 in education, focusing on how technical qualifications can better address the needs of learners and employers. It will enable the Government to produce a clear programme for T-Level students and set out their progression into higher education.Following the review, the Government will implement its commitments set out within the Skills Plan.We will continue consulting with employers, providers and other experts to ensure learners develop the knowledge they need for skilled employment or for further technical study.

Ministry of Justice

Prison Sentences

Richard Burgon: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many prisoners are serving sentences for imprisonment for public protection in each prison; and how many have already served their minimum tariff for the most recent period for which information is available.

Richard Burgon: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many prisoners serving imprisonment for public protection sentences there are in each prison; and how many such prisoners have already served their minimum tariff.

Mr Sam Gyimah: Her Majesty’s Prison and Probation Service (HMPPS) is focused on giving IPP prisoners the support, opportunities and motivation they need to progress more quickly, so that once they have completed their tariff and are reviewed by the Parole Board, they have the best possible prospects for securing release.Unto that end, and as part of a joint action plan with the Parole Board, HMPPS has implemented measures such as individual psychology-led central case reviews and increased access to specific offending behaviour programmes. Additionally, and building upon the success of the Progression Regime at HMP Warren Hill, HMPPS is planning for three new Progression Regimes to be opened by the end of March 2018.These initiatives are working. During 2016/17, 46% of all IPP prisoners considered by the Parole Board were released and 24% recommended for a move to open conditions. 576 IPP prisoners were released in 2016, more than ever before. 315 IPP prisoners have already been released in the first half of 2017.The attached table shows how many unreleased prisoners serving indeterminate sentences of Imprisonment for Public Protection (IPP) are located in each establishment and how many have served their minimum tariff. 



Table 1
(Excel SpreadSheet, 15.57 KB)

Prisoners

Richard Burgon: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what estimate the Government has made of the proportion of prisoners who spend more than 22 hours per day in their cell.

Mr Sam Gyimah: The information requested could only be obtained at disproportionate cost. The Government is fully committed to making our prisons safe so that they can provide the maximum time out of cell for meaningful and purposeful activity to give prisoners the training, skills and work experience needed on release.

Probation

Richard Burgon: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what proportion of offenders are managed by the National Probation Services; and what proportion of offenders the Government estimated would be so managed at the time of that body's creation.

Mr Sam Gyimah: Early indicative estimates of the volumes of offenders starting with Community Rehabilitation Companies (CRCs) and the National Probation Service (NPS) annually were published as part of the ‘Transforming Rehabilitation: A Strategy for Reform’ consultation document, which can be found at: https://consult.justice.gov.uk/digital-communications/transforming-rehabilitation/results/transforming-rehabilitation-response.pdf. Data on the number of offenders managed by the NPS and CRCs is published each quarter, and can be found at: https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/offender-management-statistics-quarterly. The estimates given in the Transforming Rehabilitation consultation document were based on offender starts, not total caseload.

Probation: Staff

Richard Burgon: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many staff worked in the (a) public and (b) private probation sector (i) in each year since 2010 and (ii) on the latest date for which figures are available.

Mr Sam Gyimah: From 1 April 2010 until 31 May 2014, provision was by 34 probation trusts in England and the Wales Probation Trust. The following table provides figures (full-time equivalents) for staff-in-post in probation trusts as at 30 June in each year from 2010 to 2013: YearStaff-in-post201019,335201118,466201217,881201316,297 From 1 June 2014, probation services were provided by the National Probation Service (NPS) and 21 Community Rehabilitation Companies (CRCs). At that point, both the NPS and the CRCs were in the public sector. Staff-in-post figures (full-time equivalents) for 30 June 2014 are shown in the following table: National Probation ServiceCommunity Rehabilitation Companies8,3008,331 On 1 February 2015, the CRCs became private sector organisations, the NPS remaining within the public sector. Staff-in-post figures (full-time equivalents) as at 30 June 2014 for the NPS in the years 2015-17 are shown in the following table:  YearStaff-in-post20158,86120168,75620178,758 30 June 2017 is the latest date for which figures are available. Workforce figures as at 30 September are due to be published in November. Figures for the Community Rehabilitation Companies following their move to the private sector are not collected by the Ministry of Justice but contracts with CRCs require each CRC to ensure that it employs a sufficient level of staff, and that its workforce is competent and adequately trained. We closely monitor and robustly manage providers to make sure they fulfil their contractual commitments to reduce re-offending, protect the public and provide value for money to the taxpayer.

Registered Intermediaries

Ann Coffey: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many requests for registered intermediaries were made in (a) 2016 and (b) 2017.

Dominic Raab: 6169 requests for a registered intermediary were received in 2016 and 5482 requests in 2017.

Registered Intermediaries

Ann Coffey: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many requests for registered intermediaries were made for each age group of vulnerable witnesses by (a) the police, (b) the Crown Prosecution Service, (c) courts and (d) solicitors in 2017.

Dominic Raab: The number of requests for registered intermediaries received from the police and Crown Prosecution Service this year are detailed below. No requests were received from courts or solicitors. Customer Type0-4 years5-11 years12-17 years18+ years65+ yearsCPS2148226741532Police49716657921198113

Probation

Richard Burgon: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what proportion of probation assessments carried out by each community rehabilitation company were administered (a) by telephone and (b) face-to-face in the latest period for which figures are available.

Mr Sam Gyimah: The information requested is not collated centrally. Some Community Rehabilitation Companies (CRCs) currently use telephone reporting as just one part of their operating models, in addition to regular reporting in person, where it is an appropriate tool for the individual case. Contract management teams continue to closely monitor and robustly manage providers to make sure they fulfil their contractual commitments to reduce reoffending, protect the public and provide value for money to the taxpayer. We have fundamentally reformed probation so that for the first time ever all offenders given a custodial sentence receive probation support. We remain in discussion with CRCs ensure our ambitious reforms are delivered successfully.

Registered Intermediaries

Ann Coffey: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many registered intermediaries are available to cover each police force in England and Wales in 2017.

Dominic Raab: The number of registered intermediaries available to cover each police force area in England and Wales are set out in the attached table. 



Table 1
(Excel SpreadSheet, 9.4 KB)

Registered Intermediaries

Ann Coffey: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many sexual offences were prosecuted which involved a person aged under 18-years old where that person was (a) matched and (b) unmatched with a registered intermediary in 2017.

Dominic Raab: 556 requests for a registered intermediary for a witness under 18 years old have been received from the Crown Prosecution Service. Of these, 526 were matched, 17 unmatched, 8 cancelled and 5 are in progress.

Registered Intermediaries

Ann Coffey: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many requests for registered intermediary support there were for witnesses (a) under and (b) over 18-years old by (i) the police, (ii) the Crown Prosecution Service, (iii) defence lawyers, (iv) judges and (v) police area in 2017; and what proportion of those requests were successfully fulfilled for each of such category of witness and requester.

Dominic Raab: Details of requests for registered intermediary support from the police and Crown Prosecution Service are set out in the attached table. No requests have been received from defence lawyers or judges. 



Table 1
(Excel SpreadSheet, 13.23 KB)

Personal Independence Payment: Appeals

Chris Ruane: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what assessment he has made of the effect on people with autism of participating in a potentially stressful personal independence payment tribunal.

Dominic Raab: HM Courts & Tribunal Service (HMCTS) is very sensitive to the needs of people with a wide range of physical and mental challenges. Tribunal staff, and judicial office holders, are trained accordingly, with the HMCTS reasonable adjustments policy, and guidance on this policy is published.Anyone starting an appeal before the Tribunal is asked at the outset on the appeal form if they have any special needs requirements and made aware that they can have a friend or other helper with them if they wish to attend the hearing. If they do not want to attend, the appeal can be decided as a paper hearing. In rare circumstances, the hearing might be held at the appellant's home, or a medical centreThe Tribunal is an informal and non-adversarial forum for the settling of disputes, and the judge and panel members are highly experienced and expert in their fields. A personal independence payment hearing will have a panel made up of a judge, a doctor and a person with experience or relevant qualification in disability matters. During the hearing the panel will be attentive to the circumstances and needs of the appellant, and a hearing can be paused for a rest break where required.

Prisons: Wales

Maria Eagle: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, whether he plans to build a new women's prison in Wales; and if he will make a statement.

Maria Eagle: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, whether he plans to build a new women's prison in England; and if he will make a statement.

Dr Phillip Lee: We are committed to doing all we can to address the issues around female offending so we can better protect the public and deliver more effective rehabilitation. We know that female offenders have complex and specific rehabilitative needs and as part of our estates transformation programme we are, for the first time, designing community prisons tailored to the needs of women.We will continue to explore options for potential new sites for women’s prisons and will outline further proposals in due course.

Ministry of Justice: Brexit

Seema Malhotra: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, whether his Department was consulted by the Department for Exiting the European Union on the economic impact assessments conducted for the UK leaving the EU.

Dominic Raab: The Government is carrying out an ongoing programme of comprehensive analytical work that will inform our negotiating position with the EU, to define our deep and special partnership with the EU and inform our understanding of how EU exit will affect the UK’s domestic policies and frameworks.The Ministry of Justice is working with officials across government, in close coordination with the Department for Exiting the European Union, to ensure the delivery of a holistic programme of analysis across government.

Prisons: Smuggling

Imran Hussain: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what estimate he has made of the number of instances of drone use in smuggling in (a) 2016 and (b) 2017.

Mr Sam Gyimah: I refer the member to PQ 4436, answered on 17 July 2017.

Prisons: Staff

Imran Hussain: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what estimate he has made of the (a) average and (b) longest time for a new recruit to receive a full security check and begin work in prison.

Mr Sam Gyimah: The average time for a new prison officer recruit to receive a full security check in 2017 is 46 calendar days. This is for new officer recruits who are recorded as starting work in a Prison (data up to the end of September 2017), who applied between the 1st January and 30th September 2017.The longest time for a new prison officer recruit to receive a full security check in 2017 is 141 calendar days. This is for new officer recruits who are recorded as starting work in a Prison (data up to the end of September 2017), who applied between the 1st January and 30th September 2017.

Prisoners: Dementia

Imran Hussain: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, whether he plans to introduce a dementia strategy for older prisoners.

Mr Sam Gyimah: I recognise the challenges to prisons presented by the continuing rise in the number of older prisoners. My Department has established a working group to consider, with our partners in health and social care, how we can best meet the needs of this group, including those who have needs related to dementia. Prison staff already have the benefit of operational guidance to assist them in identifying and caring for men and women in prison with dementia. We are working to enhance our knowledge about the health and social needs of older prisoners. Our work will include taking on expert advice and considering what changes we might need to make to the prison estate or to the regimes within prisons.

Prisons: Restraint Techniques

Imran Hussain: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, when the roll-out of police-style handcuffs and restraints to prison officers will (a) begin and (b) be completed.

Imran Hussain: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, will reference to his Department's press release, Increased security measures to give prison officers right tools for job, published on 22 October 2017, how many police-style handcuffs and restraints will be provided to prison officers.

Mr Sam Gyimah: We are determined to ensure the safety of our staff in our prisons. We are therefore issuing the rigid bar handcuffs to all front line staff who currently carry a baton. As part of the roll out, staff will be required to be trained in the use of the handcuffs which will be carried out during their annual control and restraint refresher training. We have begun the procurement of the new handcuffs and will deliver these, alongside the necessary training, to all frontline staff as quickly as practicable.We are fully committed to addressing violence and assaults by increasing staffing levels and improving prisoner-staff relationships. We are making swift progress in strengthening the frontline, with 20,003 individual prison officers in post at the end of August – an increase of 1,290 since October 2016. Alongside this, we are moving to a new key worker model which will mean every residential prison officer supporting a caseload of around 6 prisoners. This will mean prisoners have a consistent, named officer to challenge and support them away from violence and reoffending.We have also invested in 5,600 body-worn cameras across the prison estate, rolled out alongside training in staff interaction with prisoners, to support better relationships and give high-quality evidence to support prosecutions where assaults do take place.

Young Offenders: Criminal Records

Ben Lake: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many adults in England and Wales have a criminal record for offences committed when under the age of 18.

Dominic Raab: The Ministry of Justice holds information on individuals who have received a caution or conviction for recordable offences since 2000 on the Police National Computer. However it does not hold centrally the information necessary to indicate the number of adults in England and Wales who have a criminal record for offences committed under the age of 18. To collate it would incur disproportionate cost.

Matrimonial Property

Kwasi Kwarteng: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, whether the Government plans to bring forward legislative proposals on legally binding pre-nuptial agreements; and if he will make a statement.

Dominic Raab: We will consider nuptial agreements as part of our wider work in family justice reform to give support to couples when they have a family dispute.

Civil Proceedings: Housing

Gloria De Piero: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many civil proceedings related to housing funded by legal aid were brought in each of the last six years.

Dominic Raab: Figures for the volume of acts of assistance are available via the Legal Aid Statistics, found at https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/legal-aid-statistics-january-to-march-2017. The relevant figures are located in column V of table 6.2.

Legal Aid Scheme: Children and Young People

Gloria De Piero: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how much his Department spent on legal help and legal representation for (a) under 18 and (b) 18 to 24 year olds in each of the last seven years.

Dominic Raab: Civil RepresentationFinancial yearUnder 18 (£)18-24 (£)2010-2011132,253,92293,060,4492011-2012152,797,644111,383,4812012-2013178,013,614121,443,8402013-2014199,438,792127,022,3252014-2015171,338,515110,942,9802015-2016155,797,14084,884,8402016-2017163,054,16178,088,604 Note: The civil representation expenditure figures are based on cases closed within the financial years specified.The cases shown within each financial year may have started and concluded within the same financial year, or started within a previous year. Legal HelpFinancial yearUnder 18 (£)18-24 (£)2010-1113,090,27835,202,8732011-1210,187,12329,387,4102012-137,582,37624,894,9742013-146,295,48518,954,5042014-156,848,20616,416,2122015-167,669,57315,655,2892016-178,786,97415,988,592 Note: The Legal Help figures do not include expenditure on cases handled by the Civil Legal Advice specialist telephone service because it is not possible to calculate the age of clients from the data currently held for this area of work. In 2016/17 this area of work represented around 3% of total Legal Help expenditure. Civil representation and Legal Help cover civil and family law but not criminal matters.

Legal Aid Scheme

Gloria De Piero: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many legal aid-funded cases were started in each local authority area in each of the last six years.

Dominic Raab: Figures for the number of legal aid claims and the amount of expenditure in each local authority area are available on an annual basis via the Legal Aid Statistics in the June release found at https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/legal-aid-statistics-january-to-march-2017 in the file entitled Legal aid statistics England and Wales provider and area data 2016 to 2017. This geographic breakdown is based on the location of the office of the legal aid provider, not the address of the client. The published figures relate to cases closed as opposed to cases started, and cover almost all legal aid schemes, with the exception of telephone advice and police station work. Data on cases started could only be provided at disproportionate cost. The table at Annex A provides the total number of legal aid claims in each local authority for each financial year from 2011-12 until 2016-17.

Prisons: Civil Disorder

Sir Edward Davey: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what the cost of training and maintaining Tornado teams has been for each year since 2010.

Mr Sam Gyimah: We do not hold the information requested because non-pay costs for Tornado training are included within a single yearly National Tactical Resource Group (NTRG) training budget. The associated expenditure reports only demonstrate the total cost of operating all training delivered by NTRG within the two training centres as a whole; all training expenditure is monitored under a single responsibility code. Additionally we are unable to determine the cost of maintaining Tornado teams as these costs are embedded within individual establishment’s budgets. The amount of budget allocated to tornado delivery differs widely based on the type of establishment, required standing commitment and the number of staff requiring annual or initial training to fulfil their roles.

Prisons: Civil Disorder

Sir Edward Davey: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, on how many occasions Tornado teams have been deployed to prisons since September 2016.

Mr Sam Gyimah: Tornado teams are comprised of prison officers based in prison establishments who are trained to an advanced level of control and restraint. We have over 2000 trained staff across the country and they are grouped into Tornado teams made up of 12 officers and two commanders (a unit).Between 1/9/16 and 30/10/17 – Tornado teams have been deployed on a total of 30 occasions. In the majority of cases, Tornado teams are deployed as a precaution, and the resolution of the incident is provided by local staff.Tornado Teams can be deployed for a variety of incidents including Concerted Indiscipline, Regime Support following an incident, Assisting in searching and Incidents at Height.

Reoffenders: Veterans

Dan Jarvis: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, whether he is aware of the work being done by the charity Care after Combat to reduce reoffending among armed forces veterans; and if he will make a statement.

Dr Phillip Lee: The MoJ welcomes the efforts of all organisation which aim to reduce re-offending and will continue working in partnership with Armed Forces charities and wider voluntary sector organisations to improve prospects for those with a military background in the Criminal Justice System.

Prisoners: Veterans

Jonathan Edwards: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what recent estimate his Department has made of the number of armed forces veterans in prison in England and Wales.

Dr Phillip Lee: Since January 2015, all newly received offenders into custody (convicted or remanded) are asked on reception if they have served in the Armed Forces or as a Reservist. Data collected at prison upon first reception, show that the number of ex-armed force personnel continues to remain relatively low. Latest figures published in October 2017 shows approximately 3% of offenders who responded to the question were former members of the Armed Forces. This has been a similar level to the previous four quarters.

National Probation Service for England and Wales: Veterans

Jonathan Edwards: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what recent estimate his Department has made of the number of armed forces veterans under the supervision of Probation Service in England and Wales.

Mr Sam Gyimah: HMPPS does not collect or hold information on employees career history prior to joining the Civil Service. To enhance our recruitment and attraction of service leavers we have employed a HMPPS Armed Forces & Reserve Liaison Co-ordinator to be the main point of contact working directly with the Career Transition Partnership and Service leavers.

Ministry of Defence

Maindy Barracks

Jo Stevens: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, how many service personnel were based at Maindy Barracks in (a) 2014, (b) 2015 and (c) 2016.

Mr Tobias Ellwood: The number of Army personnel at Maindy Barracks in the years requested is shown below: As atStrength1 April 20143001 April 20153701 April 2016420 Numbers have been rounded to 10 in accordance with disclosure control and rounding policy, numbers ending in "5" have been rounded to the nearest multiple of 20 to prevent systematic bias.

Ministry of Defence: Redundancy Pay

Douglas Chapman: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, how much his Department has spent on redundancy payments to civilian employees in each of the past three years.

Mr Tobias Ellwood: The data for Ministry of Defence (MOD) redundancy payments to civilian employees alone is not held centrally and could be provided only at disproportionate cost. The MOD’s combined expenditure for civilian redundancy and early retirement for the last three financial years is shown below. Financial Year2014-152015-162016-17Civilian Redundancy and Early Retirement expenditure (£ million)£87.781£33.822£18.290

Joint Strike Fighter Aircraft

Mr Kevan Jones: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what the estimated cost is for support and maintenance for each RAF and Royal Navy F-35 aircraft once those aircraft reach initial operational capability with each of those branches of the armed forces.

Harriett Baldwin: The UK F-35 programme is on track to reach initial operating capability by the end of 2018. All F-35 aircraft are owned and operated by the RAF, but are manned by both RAF and Royal Navy personnel.The programme is currently operating within its cost approvals, for both initial procurement and support.The current estimate for F-35 support costs from 2006-2020 is £1.2 billion. This is for the UK's contribution to the F-35 Global Support Solution, and support and maintenance for the UK fleet. It also includes initial commitments for integration of UK weapons, infrastructure and development of training facilities.Support costs beyond this point will form part of approvals that will be sought through the normal Investment Approvals Committee process.

Veterans: Wales

Jonathan Edwards: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what recent estimate his Department has made of the number of armed forces veterans who are homeless in Wales.

Mr Tobias Ellwood: The Ministry of Defence has made no estimate of the number of veterans of the UK Armed Forces who are homeless in Wales. The Ministry of Defence works with the Welsh Government on many issues affecting veterans, but overall responsibility for homelessness issues is devolved to the Welsh Government.

Syria: Islamic State

Lucy Powell: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what assessment he has made of the reported use of civilians, including women and children as human shields by ISIS combatants in Syria; and whether this falls within acceptable collateral damage.

Mark Lancaster: As operations in Iraq and Syria have intensified we have seen increasing evidence of Daesh's callous disregard for human life, their unwillingness to allow civilians to leave their homes, and in some cases their deliberate attempts to use civilians to shield their fighters from coalition strikes, which is completely unacceptable.All UK strikes are planned and executed in strict accordance with International Humanitarian Law and we take all feasible precautions to protect civilians from the effects of military action.

Joint Strike Fighter Aircraft

Mr Kevan Jones: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, which countries will support the maintenance of Royal Navy and RAF F-35 aircraft once those aircraft reach initial operating capability.

Harriett Baldwin: The UK will undertake the support and maintenance of its F-35 aircraft at RAF Marham and on board the Queen Elizabeth Class Carriers.In addition to the maintenance undertaken by each of the F-35 partner nations on their respective aircraft, there are some elements of in-depth support that will be undertaken through regional repair hubs for best value and cost efficiency reasons. To date, within Europe, Italy has been selected as the European regional repair hub for airframes; Turkey has been selected as the repairing for engines; and the UK and the Netherlands have been selected as repair hubs for aircraft components.The UK will be bidding for additional contracts when they are tendered by the F-35 Joint Program Office.

Ministry of Defence: Nurseries

Tracy Brabin: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what childcare facilities his Department makes available for staff; how much his Department spent (a) overall and (b) per child on those childcare facilities in the last year; and how many staff members use those childcare facilities.

Mr Tobias Ellwood: The requested information is not held centrally and could be provided only at disproportionate cost.Child care is primarily the responsibility of local authorities and they have a remit to ensure that there is sufficient provision to meet the requirements of the parents in their area. However, it is Ministry of Defence (MOD) policy to develop solutions to any evidenced gaps in childcare for all MOD employees, both military and civilian, in the vicinity of its sites and bases. Such schemes are usually managed locally. We are currently reviewing arrangements relating to the provision of childcare for employees.

Joint Strike Fighter Aircraft

Mr Kevan Jones: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what assessment he has made of the implications for his Department of the findings of the United States Government Accountability Office report to Congressional Committees published in October 2017, on F-35 aircraft sustainment.

Mr Kevan Jones: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, whether he has received assurances from the F-35 Joint Programme Office that the findings of the United States Government Accountability Office Report to Congressional Committees of October 2017 on F-35 aircraft sustainment will be addressed.

Harriett Baldwin: The Ministry of Defence continues to work closely with the F-35 Joint Program Office (JPO) on all issues identified within the United States Government Accountability Office report.The JPO has numerous initiatives under way to improve F-35 logistics and sustainment, for example accelerating depot capability and capacity, increasing delivery of spare parts, and reducing overall sustainment costs.

Unmanned Air Vehicles

Lucy Powell: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, pursuant to the ISC report on lethal drone strikes in Syria published in April 2017, what steps the Government is taking to better scrutinise and assess collateral damage arising from UK or joint operations drone strikes.

Mark Lancaster: In accordance with our obligations under International Law, strikes conducted by the RAF only take place after a robust assessment to ensure that collateral damage from our strike is minimised. Following a strike, the UK conducts battle damage assessment which includes a review of whether there have been any civilian casualties or collateral damage.

Armed Forces: Recruitment

Jonathan Edwards: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what assessment he has made of the potential benefit to the armed forces of offering applicants a mental health check prior to joining.

Mr Tobias Ellwood: There are a number of medical conditions, including mental health conditions, that are a bar to Service and these will come to light during existing pre-entry health checks. Evidence suggests that additional mental health screening would not be an effective way of identifying those individuals who might develop mental illness in Service.

Poaching

Andrew Rosindell: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, pursuant to the Answer of 31 October 2017 to Question 109460, on poaching, what assessment he has made of the potential merits of increasing the number of UK Armed Forces personnel engaged in training and mentoring rangers in areas where poaching takes place.

Mark Lancaster: No assessment has yet been made on the potential merits of increasing the number of UK Armed Forces personnel engaged in training and mentoring rangers.Further to my answer of 31 October 2017 to Question 109460, on poaching, Liwonde National Park in Malawi was selected for a pilot project to test our methodology. Once the Pilot has concluded, we will conduct an evaluation of our approach and, where appropriate, make recommendations for subsequent training and mentoring activity.

Department for Work and Pensions

State Retirement Pensions: Females

David Linden: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, pursuant to the Answer of 24 October 2017 to Question 108665, on state retirement pensions: females, how much was spent from the public purse on that extensive advertising campaign; and how that funding was spent by method of advertising.

Guy Opperman: The Department no longer holds financial details for the campaign in question. However, people were notified through leaflets, an extensive advertising campaign was carried out, and later individual letters were posted out. For example, throughout this period the Department has been providing individuals with their most up-to-date State Pension age when they have requested a Pension statement. Between April 2000 and the end of July 2017, the Department issued more than 18 million personalised State Pension statements to people who requested them (either online or by telephone or post; and based on both old and new State Pension rules). We continue to encourage people to request a personalised State Pension Statement as part of our on-going communications.

Universal Credit

Chris Ruane: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what steps his Department takes to make claimants aware of financial assistance in the event that they experience financial difficulty while being transferred to universal credit.

Damian Hinds: If transferring from other benefits, claimants are automatically entitled to an advance without a needs assessment. For those making a new claim, any need for an advance payment or other financial or budgeting support is established at the outset of a claim for Universal Credit, this includes existing benefit claimants who move to Universal Credit through a change of circumstances. In the initial new claim interview, work coaches are trained to offer personal budgeting support and assess whether claimants need help to manage until their first Universal Credit payment, if so they are advised to apply for an advance. Furthermore, we have taken steps to increase awareness of this support by amending guidance to ensure that claimants are aware at the start of their claim of the maximum amount they could receive as an advance and the maximum repayment period.

Personal Income

Michael Tomlinson: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how income inequality has changed by percentile since 2010.

Caroline Dinenage: The Households Below Average Income survey (HBAI) produces information on the income distribution and income inequality which can be found here. This publication shows income inequality has fallen between 2009/10 and 2015/16.https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/households-below-average-income-199495-to-201516 Table 2.1ts of this publication sets out median incomes over time for each decile of the population, ordered from the 10% of individuals with the lowest equivalised household incomes (decile 1), to the 10% of individuals with the highest incomes (decile 10). This shows between 2009/10 and 2015/16 on a Before Housing Cost (BHC) basis, the median income of decile 1 increased by 4%, whereas the median income of decile 10 decreased by 3%. The patterns were similar on an After Housing Cost (AHC) basis, whereby decile 1 increased by 2% and decile 10 decreased by 3%. The publication also has measures for income inequality. One of these is the Gini-coefficient, which is an international standard technical measure, showing how incomes are distributed across all individuals. It ranges from 0% (when everyone has identical incomes) to 100% (when all income goes to only one person). Income inequality according to this measure has fallen between 2009/10 and 2015/16 from 36% to 35% on a BHC basis, and from 40% to 39% on an AHC basis. Another measure of income inequality is the 90/10 ratio; this compares the incomes of the 90th percentile to the 10th percentile. The higher the number, the greater the gap between those with the highest incomes and those with the lowest incomes. This measure has fallen between 2009/10 and 2015/16 from 4.1 to 3.9 on a BHC basis, and from 5.4 to 5.2 on an AHC basis.

Funeral Payments

Chris Stephens: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how much funding was allocated from the public purse for social fund funeral payments in 2016-17; and if he will make a statement.

Caroline Dinenage: Receipts and Payments relating to Funeral Expenses Payments are published in the Social Fund Account. The link to the Social Fund Account for 2016-17 is given below. https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/626607/social-fund-account-2016-2017.pdf In 2016/17 across Great Britain £38,595,000 was paid out in Funeral Expenses Payments and repayments totalled £96,000.These figures are given on page 11 of the Social Fund Account 2016-17.

Funeral Payments: Scotland

Chris Stephens: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many applications for funeral payments were (a) made and (b) granted in (i) Glasgow South West constituency, (ii) Glasgow and (iii) Scotland in 2016-17; and if he will make a statement.

Caroline Dinenage: DWP does not hold data on Funeral Payments at constituency or city level. The lowest geographical level at which we hold the data is by Social Fund Budget Area; the geographical areas used to administer the Social Fund in Great Britain. The Budget Area covering Glasgow South West, and Glasgow, is Springburn. Table 1 shows the number of Funeral Payment applications and awards in the Springburn Budget Area for 2016/17. These figures will include Funeral Payment awards made in areas outside the constituency of Glasgow South West and Glasgow. Table 1: Funeral Payment applications and awards in the Springburn Social Fund Budget Area, 2016/17 YearApplicationsAwardsSpringburn4,2822,855 The figures for Scotland are as follows:  Table 2: Funeral Payment applications and awards in Scotland, 2016/17 YearApplicationsAwardsScotland5,7933,780 The following special points should be noted: These figures do not include applications which were processed clerically and have not been entered on to the Social Fund Computer System.The number of awards made in each year is not equal to the number of people who made applications or received awards in that year. An individual may make multiple applications in a given time period.

Department for Work and Pensions: Conditions of Employment

Chris Stephens: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many and what proportion of staff working in his Department are employed on fixed-term contracts.

Caroline Dinenage: Fixed term contracts are used by the Department to meet a number of requirements. These include covering short term increases in work, backfilling for a permanent member of staff who will subsequently return to their post or to deliver a finite, time limited piece of work. The use of short term appointments is monitored closely to ensure that they are only used when it is necessary to do so. As at 31 July 2017, the latest date at which data is available, the Department employed 1820 people on fixed term contracts. This represents 2.2% of those employed.

Universal Credit

Stephen Timms: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, which categories of claimants of universal credit are entitled to claim (a) cold weather payments, (b) funeral payments and (c) the Sure Start maternity grant; and whether he plans to change those entitlements.

Caroline Dinenage: Universal Credit claimants are entitled to Cold Weather Payments if they have a disabled child amount in their claim, whatever their employment status. Other Universal Credit claimants will usually be entitled to Cold Weather Payments if they are not employed or self-employed and they either get a limited capability for work amount (with or without a work-related activity amount) or have a child aged under five living with them.Universal Credit claimants may be entitled to a Funeral Expenses Payment if they are arranging a funeral in the UK, European Economic Area or Switzerland. They must meet eligibility rules including rules on their relationship to the deceased person. They may not be able to claim if there is a close relative of the deceased person who is not receiving one of the qualifying income-related benefits or tax credits.Universal Credit claimants are usually entitled to a Sure Start Maternity Grant for their first child and there are no other children in their family. If they already have a child they may still be entitled a grant if they are expecting a multiple birth (such as twins or triplets). They may also be able to get a grant if they are adopting or becoming a surrogate parent.We continue to keep entitlement to these benefits under review. The Government response to the consultation on reforms to the Social Fund Funeral Expenses Payments scheme, which was published on 2 November 2017, confirmed that it will proceed with its proposals to clarify the eligibility rules for that scheme.

Post Office Card Account

Dr Philippa Whitford: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, from what date payments from his Department will no longer be paid into Post Office card accounts.

Guy Opperman: In 2014 Government committed to maintain POca until at least 2021, to ensure that people who cannot use a mainstream account can continue to access their benefits and pensions.Government’s existing POca contract with the Post Office, which expires in November 2021, has an option to be extended for up to 3 years to 2024. A decision on any extension will be taken at the appropriate time, informed by both customers’ needs and the need to make sure the taxpayer sees Value for Money.

Employment: Disability

Mr Jim Cunningham: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, if he will take steps to publish an annual report on the disability employment gap as part of the national employment statistics.

Penny Mordaunt: The employment rate of disabled people, according to the Labour Force Survey, is available at the following link. These figures are updated on a quarterly basis.https://www.ons.gov.uk/employmentandlabourmarket/peopleinwork/employmentandemployeetypes/datasets/labourmarketstatusofdisabledpeoplea08 The Government is committed to improving employment outcomes for disabled people. The manifesto commitment underpins this with a clear and time-bound goal to see 1 million more disabled people into work over the next 10 years. We know that there is much more that needs to be done, so that everyone who can work is given the right support and opportunities to do so. In October 2016, we published Improving Lives: The Work, Health and Disability Green Paper, which set out the action we plan to take and consulted on proposals for wider reform. We are working towards a publication later this year, which will provide an update on the recent work we’ve been doing, respond to the consultation, and set out our next steps

Department for Work and Pensions: Employment Tribunals Service

Alison Thewliss: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, on how many occasions his Department has been taken to an employment tribunal for maternity discrimination in each year since 2010.

Caroline Dinenage: There have been 5 employment tribunal cases raised in the Department for Work and Pensions since 2010 – one case in 2010, one case in 2013 and three cases in 2016. These cases have been recorded under the category of Maternity and Parental Leave Regulations. Two of these are still active.

Social Security Benefits: Veterans

Jonathan Edwards: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what recent estimate his Department has made of the number of armed forces veterans in receipt of disability and work-related benefits.

Penny Mordaunt: At 31 October 2017, there are 9801 recipients of Armed Forces Independence Payment (AFIP). AFIP, developed in conjunction with the Ministry of Defence and introduced from April 2013, is designed to provide financial support to service personnel and veterans seriously injured as a result of service to cover the extra costs they may have as a result of their injury. The information requested in relation to other disability and work-related benefits is not readily available and to provide it would incur disproportionate cost.Notes1 Clerical data, rounded to the nearest 10.

Poverty: Children

Dan Jarvis: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, with reference to the Answer of 18 April 2017 to Question 69473, on children: poverty, what the factors of disadvantage are that will be taken into consideration by local government.

Caroline Dinenage: As part of ‘Improving Lives: Helping Workless Families’ publication on 4 April, we made public our latest analysis and the evidence base about multiple disadvantage. This will enable local authorities, local partners and others to understand the complex factors of disadvantage in their local area and take practical action to improve children’s outcomes. As part of this evidence-sharing approach we made available local level data on the factors of disadvantage via a local government data tool (LG Inform) which can be found in the following link. http://lginform.local.gov.uk/reports/view/dwp/improving-lives-helping-workless-families-local-data-report-3?mod-area=E09000033&mod-group=AllBoroughInRegion_London&mod-type=namedComparisonGroup. The parental disadvantage factors included in the local government data tool are parental worklessness, parental conflict, poor parental mental health, drug and alcohol dependency, problem debt and homelessness. The outcome indicator areas covered are early years, educational attainment and youth employment.

Poverty

Dan Jarvis: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, with reference to the Answer of 30 March 2017 to Question 69357, on children: poverty, how he plans to tackle the root causes of poverty and disadvantage.

Caroline Dinenage: This Government is committed to building a country where no one and no community is left behind. This includes taking action to tackle the root causes of child poverty and disadvantage, such as worklessness, parental conflict, parental drug and alcohol dependency, problem debt and homelessness. Improving Lives: Helping Workless Families, published on 4 April, set out a framework for a continued focus on improving children’s outcomes, now and in the future.

Social Security Benefits: Bank Services

Dr Philippa Whitford: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, pursuant to the Answer of 26 October 2017 to Question 108977, what research his Department has conducted on the effect of bank branch closures on those people it has written to about receiving their state pension or benefits payments into a bank, building society or credit union account.

Guy Opperman: The Department has not carried out research on the effect of bank closures on those written to about receiving payments into a bank, building society or credit union account. Payment into a bank account can give customers more control over when and where they access their money. As most bank accounts can be accessed at the Post Office, customers moving to those accounts can continue to collect their payments that way. Since January, 99% of banks’ personal customers are able to withdraw cash, deposit cash and cheques, and make balance enquiries at a Post Office counter via its network of 11,600 branches.

State Retirement Pensions: Bank Services

Dr Philippa Whitford: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, pursuant to the Answer of 26 October 2017 to Question 108977, what estimate his Department has made of the numbers of people claiming state pension who cannot access a bank branch.

Guy Opperman: The Department has not made an estimate. In line with our wider policy on financial inclusion we have always made it clear that payment into a bank, building society or credit union account is the preferred way pension and benefits are paid.

Personal Independence Payment: Appeals

Conor McGinn: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what criteria must be met to deem a medical assessment unfit for purpose during a personal independence payment dispute process; and whether it is his Department's policy that a medical assessment can be used to form a judgement if the (a) claimant has requested a mandatory reconsideration and (b) medical assessment is being disputed by the claimant on the grounds of additional medical evidence.

Penny Mordaunt: When considering a Mandatory Reconsideration application, a decision maker may consider the assessment report to be unsatisfactory where they consider the overall conclusion is not fair and impartial and is likely to have compromised the quality of the initial decision. For example, it is not comprehensive, it doesn’t clearly explain the medical issues raised by the claimant, it doesn’t fully explain any contradictions in evidence, it is not complete, it is not in accordance with the relevant legislation. In considering an MR application, a decision maker will take into account both the assessment report and all other evidence held on the case, irrespective of when it has been received or who has provided it.

Post Office Card Account

Dr Philippa Whitford: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, pursuant to the Answer of 26 October 2017 to Question 108977, on post office card accounts, what estimate his Department has made of the numbers of people so written to who have been affected by bank branch closures.

Guy Opperman: The Department has not made an estimate. Payment into a bank account can give customers more control over when and where they access their money. As most bank accounts can be accessed at the Post Office, customers moving to those accounts can continue to collect their payments that way. Since January, 99% of banks’ personal customers are able to withdraw cash, deposit cash and cheques, and make balance enquiries at a Post Office counter via its network of 11,600 branches.

Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs

European Chemicals Agency

Mary Creagh: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what assessment he has made of the cost to the public purse of replicating the relevant functions of the European Chemicals Agency after the UK leaves the EU.

Dr Thérèse Coffey: No decisions have yet been made on our future relationship with the EU's agencies and bodies, including the European Chemicals Agency, after leaving the EU. Prior to any decisions on replicating relevant functions, the Government will always look to minimise disruption and costs, which will include considering a number of options. Defra, along with all other Government departments, continues to take a responsible approach in preparing for all exit scenarios.

Insects

Andrew Rosindell: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what recent assessment his Department has made of the change in the number of flying insects in the last 20 years; and if he will make a statement.

Dr Thérèse Coffey: Defra published its annual update of the UK and England Biodiversity Indicators on 3 August. This provides detailed statistical assessments of the status and trends of a range of wildlife populations including butterflies and pollinating insects. The indicators of butterfly abundance in the UK show significant declines since 1976: by 74% for species most closely associated with flower-rich habitats and 57% for species of the wider countryside, although since 2011 the indicators have been broadly stable. Since 1980, the indicator of insect pollinator distribution in Great Britain which covers almost 400 species of bees and hoverflies, has declined by 13% although similarly, this indicator shows no overall change since 2011. England Biodiversity Indicators: www.gov.uk/government/statistics/england-biodiversity-indicatorsUK biodiversity indicators: http://jncc.defra.gov.uk/page-4229Biodiversity 2020: Our Strategy for Wildlife and Ecosystem Services: www.gov.uk/government/publications/biodiversity-2020-a-strategy-for-england-s-wildlife-and-ecosystem-servicesThe National Pollinator Strategy:www.gov.uk/government/publications/national-pollinator-strategy-for-bees-and-other-pollinators-in-england

Fracking

Mike Amesbury: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what assessment his Department has made of the environmental effect of fracking.

Dr Thérèse Coffey: In 2012, an independent review by the Royal Society and Royal Academy of Engineering concluded that the environmental risks associated with hydraulic fracturing can be managed effectively in the UK if operational best practices are implemented and enforced through regulation. In 2013, the Environment Agency (EA) published ‘An Environmental Risk Assessment for Shale Gas Exploratory Operations in England’ on gov.uk, which reviewed the potential environmental risks and how they can be minimised and managed through environmental regulation. We have a robust regulatory regime in this country, which the Government has committed to keep under review as the industry develops. The EA carries out detailed site specific risk assessments where fracking is proposed and will not issue a permit unless it is satisfied that the risks can be managed.

Department for Communities and Local Government

High Rise Flats: Fire Extinguishers

John Healey: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, pursuant to his oral contribution of 19 October 2017, Official Report, column 1001, on Grenfell Tower, for how many of the buildings in the Government's building safety programme the retrofitting of sprinkler systems has been identified as one of the remedial measures needed.

Alok Sharma: Fire and rescue services have visited all affected Aluminium Composite Material clad high-rise residential buildings in the social sector to advise building owners on the interim measures that should be in place. The Building Safety Programme is continuing to work closely with building owners to ensure steps are in place to deliver interim and longer term remedial action.

London Fire and Emergency Planning Authority

Andrew Gwynne: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, when a Minister in his Department last visited London Fire Brigade; and who was met on that visit.

Andrew Gwynne: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, when a Minister in his Department last visited (a) Bedfordshire, (b) Cambridgeshire, (c) Essex, (d) Hertfordshire, (e) Norfolk and (f) Suffolk Fire and Rescue Service; and who was met on that visit.

Andrew Gwynne: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, when a Minister in his Department last visited, (a) Avon, (b) Cornwall, (c) Devon and Somerset, (d) Dorset and Wiltshire, (e) Gloucestershire, (f) Guernsey and (g) Jersey Fire and Rescue Service; and who was met on that visit.

Andrew Gwynne: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, when a Minister in his Department last visited, (a) Cleveland, (b) Durham, (c) Northumberland and (d) Tyne and Wear Fire and Rescue Service; and who was met on that visit.

Andrew Gwynne: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, when a Minister in his Department last visited (a) Buckinghamshire, (b) East Sussex, (c) Hampshire, (d) Isle of Wight, (e) Kent, (f) Oxfordshire, (g) Royal Berkshire, (h) Surrey and (i) West Sussex Fire and Rescue Service; and who was met on that visit.

Andrew Gwynne: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, when a Minister in his Department last visited Scottish Fire and Rescue Service; and who was met on that visit.

Andrew Gwynne: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, when a Minister in his Department last visited (a) Mid and West Wales, (b) North Wales and (c) South Wales Fire and Rescue Service; and who was met on that visit.

Andrew Gwynne: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, when a Minister in his Department last visited (a) Derbyshire, (b) Leicestershire, (c) Lincolnshire, (d) Nottinghamshire and (e) Northamptonshire Fire and Rescue Service; and who was met on that visit.

Andrew Gwynne: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, when a Minister in his Department last visited (a) Cheshire, (b) Cumbria, (c) Lancashire, (d) Greater Manchester, (e) Merseyside and (f) Northern Ireland Fire and Rescue Service; and who was met on that visit.

Andrew Gwynne: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, when a Minister in his Department last visited (a) Hereford and Worcester, (b) Shropshire, (c) Staffordshire, (d) Warwickshire and (e) West Midlands Fire and Rescue Service; and who was met on that visit.

Andrew Gwynne: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, when a Minister in his Department last visited (a) Humberside, (b) North Yorkshire, (c) South Yorkshire and (d) West Yorkshire Fire and Rescue Service; and who was met on that visit.

Alok Sharma: Recently, Minsters and officials in my Department have been in regular contact with representatives from Fire and Rescue Services to discuss the Grenfell Fire and will continue to do so in collaboration with the Home Office, who have overall responsibility for the Fire and Rescue Service.

Private Rented Housing: Homelessness

Melanie Onn: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, what assessment his Department has made of the potential effect of help to rent projects de-risking the private rented sector for homeless households.

Stephen Timms: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, what assessment he has made of the effect of help to rent projects in enabling homeless people to gain access to accommodation in the private rented sector.

Mr Marcus Jones: Holding answer received on 03 November 2017



Help to rent projects play an important role in enabling homeless people to access the private rented sector. My officials and I are currently considering the effectiveness of existing projects operating across the country.

Grenfell Tower: Fires

Andy Slaughter: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, pursuant to the Answer of 31 October 2017 to Question 109354, on Grenfell Tower: fire, what the specific fault with the fridge freezer was that caused the fire.

Alok Sharma: My understanding is that this matter is subject to the ongoing police investigation into the fire, which is led by the Metropolitan Police Service.

Department for Communities and Local Government: Nurseries

Tracy Brabin: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, what childcare facilities his Department makes available for staff; how much his Department spent (a) overall and (b) per child on those childcare facilities in the last year; and how many staff members use those childcare facilities.

Mr Marcus Jones: Holding answer received on 03 November 2017



The Department subsidises staff to use the Westminster Play scheme run by Tinies, a holiday play scheme covering school holidays.During the last year there have been a total of 5 holiday sessions covered by the scheme. During this time a total of 9 Department employees with 10 children have benefited from the scheme. Unfortunately we are unable to provide a cost per child however the total cost to the Department for the scheme during this period was £691.50, which averages out at £69.15 per child.

Social Services

Sir Vince Cable: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, what the Government's policy is on the invitation from the Local Government Association to participate in cross-party talks on the future of adult social care.

Mr Marcus Jones: Holding answer received on 03 November 2017



As we stated in the Queen's Speech, the Government will work with partners at all levels, including those who use services and who work to provide care, to bring forward proposals for public consultation. The Government will consult on options to encourage a wider debate.Local government - and the Local Government Association as its principal representative body - will be absolutely central to this, as will politicians from all parties.

Wales Office

Trade Agreements: Wales

Jo Stevens: To ask the Secretary of State for Wales, what steps he is taking to ensure that Welsh interests are protected in future international trade negotiations.

Alun Cairns: I hold regular discussions with the Secretary of State for International Trade to discuss Welsh interests in respect of international trade. Hearing from stakeholders in Wales is key to understanding where concerns and opportunities lay and, last week, I was pleased to host a visit with the Secretary of State for International Trade and representatives from the dairy industry to explore their perspective in more depth. My Department is working to ensure we get the best possible deal for Wales and for the UK as a whole. Leaving the EU will result in many opportunities for businesses in Wales as we build on our reputation for being an open, successful trading nation.

Trade Agreements: Wales

Jo Stevens: To ask the Secretary of State for Wales, whether the Wales Office plans to make discrete assessments on the effects of future potential free trade deals on the economy in Wales.

Alun Cairns: Leaving the EU will allow us to shape our own ambitious trade and investment opportunities and put the UK, including Wales, at the forefront of global trade and investment. It is important that trade policy reflects the needs and individual circumstances in Wales and I will ensure we draw on the right knowledge and expertise to make that happen. I hold regular discussions with the Secretary of State for International Trade and I, as a member of the Trade Committee, and my officials, have regular contact with the Department for International Trade’s broader work and analysis. We will continue to ensure that full and proper consideration is given to the economic impact on Wales as trade policy develops.

HM Treasury

Financial Institutions

Tom Brake: To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, what estimate his Department has made of the effect on UK GDP of the relocation of financial institutions to locations outside the UK between 23 June 2016 and 30 September 2017.

Stephen Barclay: The Office of National Statistics (ONS) publishes regular updates on GDP figures, including their breakdown by sector. In terms of the economy as a whole, the ONS has calculated that GDP has increased by 1.9% in Q3 (July – September) 2017, relative to Q2 2016. Over the same period financial and insurance sector output has increased by 1.8%, and contributed 0.12 percentage points to economic growth.

Emigration: EU Nationals

Tom Brake: To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, what estimate his Department has made of the loss in tax revenue caused by the departure of non-UK EU nationals who have emigrated from the UK between 23 June 2016 and 30 September 2017.

Stephen Barclay: No such estimate is available.

UK Trade with EU

Tom Brake: To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, what assessment his Department has made of the effect a Canadian-style trade deal with the EU will have on the UK economy compared to the current arrangement the UK has with the EU as part of being a Member State of the EU, Customs Union and single market.

Stephen Barclay: The Government has undertaken a significant amount of work to assess the economic impacts of leaving the EU. This is part of our continued programme of rigorous and extensive analytical work on a range of scenarios on a sector by sector basis. The Prime Minister has ‎made clear however that the UK aims to agree an ambitious and comprehensive economic partnership with the EU that is of far greater scope and ambition than any existing free trade agreement.

Alcoholic Drinks: Excise Duties

Scott Mann: To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, if he will make an assessment of the potential merits of reducing beer and cider duties for the purposes of stimulating growth in (a) those sectors and (b) the pub industry.

Andrew Jones: The government keeps all taxes under review at fiscal events, and we will consider this issue carefully as part of the Autumn Budget process.

Cryptocurrencies: Regulation

Chris Evans: To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, what steps his Department is taking to regulate (a) Bitcoin and (b) other crypto-currencies.

Stephen Barclay: The UK government is currently negotiating amendments to the 4th Anti-Money Laundering Directive that will bring virtual currency exchange platforms and custodian wallet providers into Anti-Money Laundering and Counter-Terrorist Financing regulation, which will result in these firms’ activities being overseen by national competent authorities for these areas. The government supports the intention behind these amendments. We expect these negotiations to conclude at EU level in late 2017/early 2018.

Financial Services

Chris Evans: To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, to which countries he has made representations in respect of building FinTech bridges.

Stephen Barclay: FinTech, including opportunities for collaboration in this area, forms a key part of the UK’s bilateral financial services discussions. The UK currently has four FinTech Bridges – with Singapore, the Republic of Korea, China, and Hong Kong.

Self-employed: National Insurance Contributions

Kerry McCarthy: To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, what the timetable is to bring forward legislative proposals to abolish Class 2 National Insurance contributions for the self-employed.

Andrew Jones: The Government set out its position on Thursday 2nd November via a Written Ministerial Statement to the House “Update on National Insurance Contributions Bill”. As the statement made clear, the Government has decided to implement a one year delay to allow time to engage with interested parties and Parliamentarians with concerns relating to the impact of the abolition of Class 2 NICs on self-employed individuals with low profits.

Department for Exiting the European Union

Brexit

Hywel Williams: To ask the Secretary of State for Exiting the European Union, what the formal relationship is between himself and the First Secretary of State.

Mr Robin Walker: The First Secretary of State is a colleague and member of Cabinet. An outline of ministerial responsibilities can be found on GOV.UK under the relevant departments webpage.

Department for Exiting the European Union: Staff

Tom Brake: To ask the Secretary of State for Exiting the European Union, how many (a) legally qualified staff and (b) staff without legal qualifications currently working in his Department (i) have been transferred from and (ii) are on secondment from the Ministry of Justice.

Mr Steve Baker: The information requested is not held centrally therefore we are not in a position to provide this skills breakdown for particular groups of staff.The Department for Exiting the European Union now has over 500 staff, and is growing fast. DExEU is drawing together expertise from a wide range of departments where there is specific relevant knowledge. The Department has sourced a large proportion of experienced staff from across Whitehall on a loan basis and a number of secondees from the private sector and the wider public sector. The Department obtains its legal advice from the Government Legal Department through a shared service arrangement.We can confirm that at the time of your request we have a total of 15 staff on loan from the Ministry of Justice.All departments are equipping themselves with the resources they need to get the best deal for the UK.

Charities

Mr Steve Reed: To ask the Secretary of State for Exiting the European Union, pursuant to Annex A of the Secretary of State's letter of 30 October 2017 to the Chair of the Lords Sub-Committee on EU External Affairs, for what reason his Department has not included the charity sector in its list of sectors to help structure analytical work on EU exit.

Mr Robin Walker: As part of our work preparing to make a success of our departure from the European Union we are carrying out a full suite of analysis as you would expect a responsible Government to do. This means looking at 58 sectors as well as cross-cutting regulatory, economic and social issues to help inform our negotiation positions.Charities cover a wide range of issues and sectors, as such, they do not necessarily all face the same issues. Specific charities will however share many characteristics that affect particular sectors, which are included in the list. For example Charities relating to medical research will be covered by medical services and pharmaceuticals sectors.Taking a cross-Whitehall approach to engagement we have been working closely with the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport to ensure that we speak to stakeholders who represent a cross-section of groups. We continue to hold engagements with a range of charitable organisations at both ministerial and official level.There are many breakdowns and names of sectors used by different organisations. It is entirely to be expected that our list will not map directly onto every other such list. Regardless, this list is not the only way we are looking at sectors, and we draw on the full range of information available in our assessments and analysis of cross-cutting issues.

Department for International Trade

South Sudan: Arms Trade

Patrick Grady: To ask the Secretary of State for International Trade, what information his Department holds on the supply of arms by a British company to the Government of South Sudan; and if he will make a statement.

Mark Garnier: We take very seriously the allegations made by Amnesty International on the role of a UK company in the sale of arms to South Sudan. We have consistently called for a UN arms embargo to be implemented with immediate effect. Such an embargo would prevent any sale of arms to South Sudan globally.The UK Government has not authorised the supply of arms to South Sudan and DIT has not issued any trade or export licences for arms to South Sudan.Amnesty International has passed their information to HMRC and it is being assessed.

Dairy Farming: Exports

Scott Mann: To ask the Secretary of State for International Trade, what assessment he has made of export opportunities in the dairy sector.

Mark Garnier: The dairy sector is an important contributor to food and drink exports with increasing demand internationally for our products. For example, cheese is our 5th largest food and drink export and has seen a 26% increase in exports to £292m for the first 6 months of this year. Milk, cream and butter are also seeing increasing demand internationally.The Department for International Trade’s food and drink team currently run six high value campaigns targeting China, India, Western Europe, North America, Latin America and the Nordics. The dairy sector is integral to the delivery of these campaigns.To recognise the importance of the food and drink sector, the Great British Food Programme has been designed to allow South West food and drink businesses to directly interact with overseas buyers. Since April 2016 DIT South West has helped businesses in the sector win over £19.5m worth of export business across more than 30 markets.

Foreign Investment in UK

Justin Tomlinson: To ask the Secretary of State for International Trade, what recent estimate his Department has made of trends in the level of foreign direct investment into the licensed hospitality industry in the UK.

Mark Garnier: Neither the Department for International Trade (DIT) nor the Office for National Statistics (ONS) breaks down the level of foreign direct investment into the licensed hospitality industry.

Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport

Al-Jazeera Satellite Television

Mr Graham Brady: To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, what comparative assessment she has made of the regulation of extremist content on the (a) English and (b) Arabic language versions of the Al Jazeera Arabic service in the UK.

Matt Hancock: Al Jazeera English is regulated by Ofcom and must comply with robust rules in the Ofcom Broadcasting Code on harmful or offensive content. Since its launch in 2006 Ofcom has recorded two breaches of the Broadcasting Code with no statutory sanctions. The Arabic version of Al Jazeera is licensed by the Italian media regulator, Agcom, and broadcasts into the UK under the country of origin principle.

Cybercrime

Andrew Gwynne: To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, pursuant to the Answer of 25 October 2017 to Question 108122, on cybercrime, how many registered consultancies of the Government's Cyber Essentials scheme had data exposed.

Andrew Gwynne: To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, if she will place in the Library a copy of the letter sent to registered consultancies of the Government's Cyber Essentials scheme whose data was exposed owing to a configuration error in the Pervade Software platform.

Matt Hancock: I refer the Hon member to my answer to PQ 108123.

UK Anti-doping

Dr Rosena Allin-Khan: To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, if her Department will increase funding for UK Anti-Doping.

Dr Rosena Allin-Khan: To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, what recent discussions she has had with UK Anti-Doping on the adequacy of its resources.

Tracey Crouch: Resourcing is part of regular discussions with all of our Arm’s Length Bodies.In March 2017 I announced a Tailored Review of UK Anti-Doping (UKAD). The Review is considering UKAD’s efficiency, effectiveness and governance; and how it is preparing for the future. The Tailored Review will be published before the end of 2017.  Sporting Future, the government’s sport strategy, made a commitment to ensure that UKAD continues to be funded at the levels needed for it to further enhance its strong reputation and to protect its funding in real terms throughout the current Spending Review period. This is reflected in its Spending Review settlement. The UK Government remains fully committed to combating doping in sport and protecting the integrity of sport.

Internet: Bullying

Liam Byrne: To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, what steps her Department is taking to evaluate the impact, effectiveness and sustainability of the anti-bullying training that Facebook is planning to fund.

Liam Byrne: To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, what branding or other promotional material indicating Facebook's sponsorship will be visible on any of the materials used in pursuit of the Internet Safety Strategy.

Matt Hancock: We warmly welcome Facebook’s digital safety ambassador scheme, in partnership with the Diana award and Childnet International which aims to provide anti-bullying training for one young person in each UK school. This scheme is a private initiative. The Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport will not be making any evaluation or producing any sponsorship material for the scheme.

Football: Governing Bodies

Dr Rosena Allin-Khan: To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, what assessment she has made of the effect of the recent FA governance reforms in addressing the lack of BAME representation in football governance.

Tracey Crouch: The FA, like all sports bodies in receipt of public funding, is now required to comply with the highest standards of sports governance as set out in Sport England and UK Sport's A Code for Sports Governance. This includes having at least 30 per cent gender diversity on boards, acting in an open and transparent way and making progress on BAME representation in sports administration. All funded bodies have until the 31 October to provide evidence of how they are making progress towards meeting the requirements in the Code. Sport England and UK Sport will be reviewing this evidence, and will continue to be rigorous in their monitoring of on-going compliance.

Kick It Out

Jo Stevens: To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, how many times the Minister for Sport has met representatives from Kick It Out since her appointment (a) in total and (b) in each year.

Jo Stevens: To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, what the date was of the last occasion on which the Minister for Sport met with a representative of the Professional Footballers Association.

Jo Stevens: To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, how many times the Minister for Sport has met representatives of the Professional Footballers Association since her appointment (a) in total and (b) in each year.

Jo Stevens: To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, when was the last occasion on which the Minister for Sport met a representative from Kick It Out.

Tracey Crouch: I most recently met with Gordon Taylor, the CEO of the Professional Footballers’ Association (PFA), as part of a discussion on how sports can improve its offer of help to athletes suffering with mental health on 17th October 2017, and with representatives of Kick It Out as part of a homophobia in sport roundtable on 22nd March 2017.  Details of further ministerial meetings are published quarterly on Gov.uk

Tech City UK and Tech North: Equal Pay

Chi Onwurah: To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, what information her Department holds on the extent of the gender pay gap for staff at Tech City and Tech North.

Matt Hancock: We do not hold information for staff at Tech City and Tech North.

Sanitary Protection: VAT

Diana Johnson: To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, how many projects made bids for funding from the Tampon Tax Fund; how many of those bids were unsuccessful; and which projects were unsuccessful.

Tracey Crouch: 850 applications were received for the 2017/18 round of the Tampon Tax Fund and 780 were unsuccessful. Applications were assessed against three criteria: evidence for the need of the project; the organisation’s ability to deliver; and the sustainability and impact of the project. Details of unsuccessful applications are not made available as to do so could be prejudicial to future funding bids.

Employment

Jo Stevens: To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, what estimate her Department has made of the number of jobs in the technology, culture and heritage sectors that will be (a) created and (b) lost in the event that if the negotiations on the UK leaving the EU result in no deal.

Matt Hancock: I refer the hon member to my answer to PQ 106673.

House of Commons Commission

House of Commons Commission: Contracts for Services

Chris Stephens: To ask the right hon. Member for Carshalton and Wallington, representing the House of Commons Commission, whether evidence of remedial action is required from a contractor who has been involved in the practice of blacklisting before it secures a contract with the Commission; and if he will make a statement.

Tom Brake: As a pre-qualification activity in the procurement process, potential contractors tendering for contracts with the House Service are asked to confirm whether they have breached labour law obligations, including the Employment Relations Act 1999 (Blacklists) Regulations 2010 and the Modern Slavery Act 2015, in the previous three years. Where this turns out to be the case, they are asked to explain what measures have been taken and provide evidence as appropriate to demonstrate the reliability of the organisation despite the existence of a relevant ground for exclusion. If the response is not satisfactory, the House Service has the right to exclude the organisation from the tendering process at its discretion.

Department of Health

Kidney Diseases

Mr Barry Sheerman: To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what steps his Department is taking to improve the prognosis for (a) adults and (b) children diagnosed with kidney disease.

Steve Brine: NHS England commissions specialist renal services for adults, children and young people and has recently published renal service specifications (that cover dialysis, acute kidney injury, renal assessment and transplantation) that should lead to uniform high levels of kidney care across England. Further information can be found via the following link:www.england.nhs.uk/commissioning/spec-services/npc-crg/group-a/a06/

Psychiatry: East of England

Sir Oliver Heald: To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what assessment he has made of the trends in the number of doctors working in (a) psychiatry and (b) Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services in the east of England.

Jackie Doyle-Price: NHS Digital publishes workforce statistics including data on psychiatrists and mental health services in the east of England which is available at the link below.https://digital.nhs.uk/media/32979/NHS-Workforce-Statistics-July-2017-Provisional-Statistics-Doctors-by-Grade-and-Specialty/default/NHS_Workforce_Statistics__July_2017_Doctors_by_Grade_and_Specialty

General Practitioners: Insurance

Ian C. Lucas: To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what discussions he has had with GPs and medical defence organisations on providing appropriate funding to meet additional costs incurred following changes to the discount rate in February 2017.

Mr Philip Dunne: The Department is aware that the rise in the cost of indemnity as a result of the change in the personal discount rate announced by the then Lord Chancellor (Rt. hon. Elizabeth Truss MP) in February 2017 is an area of concern for general practitioners (GPs). The Department has been assessing the potential effect of the discount rate change by working closely with GPs and Medical Defence Organisations to ensure that appropriate funding is available to meet the additional costs to GPs, recognising the crucial role they play in the delivery of National Health Service care. On 12 October 2017, my Rt. hon. Friend the Secretary of State for Health announced that the Department is planning, subject to examination of relevant issues, the development of a state-backed indemnity scheme for general practice in England. The Department will continue to work with the Royal College of General Practitioners, the British Medical Association and other GP representatives to engage with the sector on this issue.

Prescription Drugs: Prices

Chris Ruane: To ask the Secretary of State for Health, which prescription drugs had the highest increase in price to the NHS in the last 10 years for which data is available.

Steve Brine: The table below shows the top five individual medicines and chemicals that have shown the highest increase in price over the last 10 years for Net Ingredient Cost (NIC) per prescription item and NIC per quantity. Prescription medicines/chemicals have only been included where there was prescribing in both 2006 and 2016. This is based on Prescription Cost Analysis (PCA) data. PCA data is based on analysis of all prescriptions dispensed in the community i.e. by community pharmacists and appliance contractors, dispensing doctors, and prescriptions submitted by prescribing doctors for items personally administered in England. PCA data do not cover drugs dispensed in hospitals, including mental health trusts, or private prescriptions. Costs vary over time due to numerous factors including medicines going off patent and becoming available generically, unlicensed medicines becoming licensed medicines, shortages, the level of competition for generic medicines, as well as centrally agreed pricing schemes such as the Pharmaceutical Price Regulation Scheme. The Department is working closely with the Competition and Markets Authority on a number of investigations into unwarranted price rises of unbranded generic medicines. Where companies have breached competition law, we will seek damages and invest that money back into the National Health Service. The top five medicines with the highest increase in Net Ingredient1 Cost per prescription item2Drug Name20062016IncreaseOrfadin_Cap 10mg£5,436.74£20,030.86£14,594.12Cerezyme_I/V Inf 400u Vl (Dry)£18,143.17£30,397.85£12,254.68Chenodeoxycholic Acid_Cap 250mg£88.57£9,580.10£9,491.54Trientine Dihydroch_Cap 300mg (Old)£218.58£5,488.22£5,269.64Sod Benz_Liq Spec 400mg/5ml£361.95£4,352.92£3,990.96Source: Prescription Cost Analysis Notes: 1NIC is the basic cost of a drug. It does not take account of discounts, dispensing costs, fees or prescription charges income, so the amount the NHS spent will be slightly different. 2Prescriptions are written on a prescription form known as an FP10. Each single item written on the form is counted as a prescription item.

Cervical Cancer: Research

Michelle Donelan: To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what assessment he has made of trends in the level of funding for research on cervical cancer in the last five years.

Jackie Doyle-Price: The Department funds research into all aspects of human health, including cancer, through the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) at the level of £1 billion per year. NIHR cancer research expenditure has risen from £101 million in 2010/11 to £137 million in 2016/17. As with other Government funders of health research, the NIHR does not allocate funding for specific disease areas. The level of research spend in a particular area, such as cervical cancer, is driven by factors including scientific potential and the number and scale of successful funding applications. Nineteen major funders of cancer research in the United Kingdom work together as the National Cancer Research Institute (NCRI). These funders include the Department, the Medical Research Council and Cancer Research UK. Through coordinating their research, NCRI partners maximise the impact of research for cancer patients and the public.

Carbon Monoxide: Poisoning

Eddie Hughes: To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what estimate his Department has made of the cost to the NHS of treating carbon monoxide poisoning in the last 12 months.

Steve Brine: The Department has not made an estimate of the cost to the National Health Service of treating carbon monoxide poisoning in the last 12 months. The 2016-17 annual report of the Cross-Government Group on Gas Safety and Carbon Monoxide is being prepared and will be published on the Health and Safety Executive website:http://www.hse.gov.uk/gas/domestic/cross-government-group.htm

Health Visitors

Ian Austin: To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what (a) number and (b) proportion of children in each region have received each of the health visitor checks in each of the last five years.

Jackie Doyle-Price: NHS England has published the percentages of children receiving health visitor checks for 2013/14 and 2014/15 data at:www.england.nhs.uk/statistics/statistical-work-areas/health-visitors/health-visitors-service-delivery-metrics/No published data is held prior to April 2013. Public Health England (PHE) now collects the data, which is submitted by local authorities on a voluntary basis. Data for 2015/16 can be found at:http://webarchive.nationalarchives.gov.uk/20170302101209/http://www.chimat.org.uk/transfer#3And data for 2016/17 at:https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/child-and-maternal-health-statistics#health-visitor-service-delivery-metrics.A change in methodology means that the data from PHE and NHS England are not comparable.

Health Visitors

Ian Austin: To ask the Secretary of State for Health, how many health visitors there have been in each region in each of the last five years.

Jackie Doyle-Price: NHS Digital publishes workforce statistics and the following table shows full time equivalent (FTE) qualified health visitors working in the National Health Service trusts and clinical commissioning groups in England from 31 July 2012 to 31 July 2017. Current data collections do not cover the complete range of these organisations. As a result, it is not possible to provide accurate data on the total size of the health visitor workforce. NHS Hospital and Community Health Services (HCHS): Qualified Health Visitors working in each region as at 31 July each specified year (FTE). Health visitors (FTE)July 2012July 2013July 2014July 2015July 2016July 2017Health Education East Midlands612684734816778732Health Education East of England507554644763732630Health Education Kent, Surrey and Sussex399467525650619545Health Education North Central and East London396435540649634543Health Education North East574644664650408345Health Education North West1,3551,4311,5601,7011,7361,632Health Education North West London342410451493488492Health Education South London336307365447430358Health Education South West466557528624396372Health Education Thames Valley330310340385365324Health Education Wessex335377439519495481Health Education West Midlands8569471,1291,2651,1981,067Health Education Yorkshire and the Humber8799439099831,106927Source: NHS Digital monthly HCHS workforce statisticsNote:Health visitors may be employed by NHS provider organisations, but may also be employed directly by local authorities, or other care providers.

Alcoholic Drinks: Standards

Mr Nigel Evans: To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what steps his Department is taking to promote the consumption of lower strength alcohol.

Mr Nigel Evans: To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what discussions he has had with the alcohol industry on introducing lower strength alcohol across the UK.

Mr Nigel Evans: To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what discussions he has had with the Chancellor of the Exchequer on promoting low-strength alcoholic beverages.

Steve Brine: The 2016 UK Chief Medical Officers low risk drinking guidelines provide the public with the most up to date scientific information to help people make informed decisions about their own drinking. Guidance on low risk drinking is also contained in the Public Health England ‘One You’ campaign. The alcohol industry made a pledge in 2012 to reduce alcoholic strength of its products, which has seen 1.3 billion units of alcohol removed from people’s drinks.The Department held workshops last autumn with industry and public health experts, with the aim of encouraging the public to move towards lower strength alcoholic drinks from the industry standard, and commissioned research on the impact of developing and introducing new descriptors for alcoholic products above 1.2% alcohol by volume (ABV).There have been no recent discussions between the Secretary of State for Health and Chancellor of the Exchequer on promoting low-strength alcohol beverages.The duty rates on beer, cider, wine and spirits increased by Retail Price Index inflation, in line with the previous forecasts, including financial incentives to produce lower levels of alcohol. Rates were published on 13 March 2017 and are available here:https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/rates-and-allowance-excise-duty-alcohol-duty/alcohol-duty-rates-from-24-march-2014Earlier this year the Government also launched a consultation on options to ensure duty rates for cider and wine better correspond to alcoholic strength, and to encourage the production and consumption of lower strength drinks. One option looked at the impacts of a new low-strength wine band between 5.5% and 8.5% ABV. The Government is currently considering all consultation responses and will announce its next steps in due course.

Chronic Fatigue Syndrome: Health Services

Patrick Grady: To ask the Secretary of State for Health, if he will respond to Early Day Motion 271, entitled NICE guidelines on ME.

Steve Brine: The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) guidance set outs best practice for clinicians on the diagnosis, treatment care and support of people with myalgic encephalomyelitis and supports commissioners to to plan services for local populations. The full guidance can be found at the following link:www.nice.org.uk/guidance/cg53On 20 September 2017, NICE announced its decision to undertake a full update of the guidance. More information on this decision can be found at the following link:www.nice.org.uk/guidance/cg53/resources/surveillance-report-2017-chronic-fatigue-syndromemyalgic-encephalomyelitis-or-encephalopathy-diagnosis-and-management-2007-nice-guideline-cg53-pdf-5964455783941

Tobacco: Packaging

Alex Burghart: To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what recent assessment he has made of the effect of the introduction of plain cigarette packaging on smoking rates.

Steve Brine: The Standardised Packaging of Tobacco Products Regulations 2015 came into force on 20 May 2016. The Government consulted on the introduction of standardised packaging and published an impact assessment, which included benefits to public health. The Government will review these regulations by 2020.

Diabetes: Medical Equipment

Mr Alan Campbell: To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what assessment he has made of the effect of flash glucose monitoring on the management of diabetes.

Mr Alan Campbell: To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what steps his Department takes to ensure that people with diabetes have access to new and emerging technologies as they come to market.

Steve Brine: Freestyle Libre, a flash glucose monitoring system has been approved for reimbursement on National Health Service prescription from 1 November 2017 through listing in Part IX of the NHS England and Wales Drug Tariff. The NHS Business Services Authority carries out the assessment of Part IX applications made by manufacturers on behalf, of the Secretary of State for Health, for prescribing at NHS expense by an appropriate practitioner. The listing of a medical device in the Drug Tariff should not be interpreted as a recommendation to prescribe a particular product. Patients will need to discuss the ongoing management of their condition with their healthcare professional and consider whether flash glucose monitoring is suitable for them. Any device made available for prescribing to patients through listing in Part IX is required to meet set criteria, namely that the product is safe and of good quality, it is appropriate for general practice and, if relevant, non-medical prescribing, and it is cost effective. Within its financial constraints, the NHS is committed to providing access to new drugs and medical technologies. Ultimately it is for clinical commissioning groups (CCGs), who are primarily responsible for commissioning diabetes services, to meet the requirements of their population. In doing so, CCGs need to ensure that the services they provide are fit for purpose, reflect the needs of the local population and are based on the available evidence and take into account national guidelines.

NHS: Temporary Employment

Louise Haigh: To ask the Secretary of State for Health, whether he plans to introduce caps on agency usage in NHS-commissioned services.

Mr Philip Dunne: My Rt. hon. Friend the Secretary of State for Health introduced caps on agency spending in National Health Service trusts in November 2015 that were specifically designed to cap the amount spent on agency staff in NHS hospitals, where most NHS-commissioned care is undertaken. As a result in 2016/17 the NHS saved £700 million. NHS Improvement is taking forward a comprehensive plan for 2017/18 to deliver more savings focusing on improving the use of collaborative staff banks and improving flexible working options for substantive staff; targeted action on medical locum spending including hands-on support to highest spenders; increased compliance with agency rules particularly stamping out off-framework use; increased and improved data collection.

NHS Trusts: Cybercrime

Jon Trickett: To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what estimate he has made of the (a) highest, (b) lowest and (c) average cost of implementing CareCERT alerts for each NHS trust in England.

Jackie Doyle-Price: CareCERT alerts are not costed in a way that would allow for a breakdown in costs relating to implementing these alerts for each National Health Service trust in England. This is because the local cost of implementing changes recommended in CareCERT alerts is entirely dependent on whether the vulnerabilities identified apply to the organisation in question, whether they are acting on all, some, or none of the recommendations, what their local solution on addressing the vulnerability is, and whether there is even a cost to making the change other than the resource effort to download patches. CareCERT alerts are part of the suite of services offered by NHS Digital to improve the cyber hygiene and resilience of the NHS. To prevent cyber-attacks, NHS Digital’s CareCERT Intelligence service regularly blocks more than 90 million harmful activities each month. The alerts provided by CareCERT are guidance, advice, good practice, and support.

Patients: Transport

Stephen Timms: To ask the Secretary of State for Health, which categories of claimants of universal credit are entitled to claim help with healthcare travel costs; and whether he plans to change that entitlement.

Steve Brine: Claimants of Universal Credit will be entitled to claim help with their National Health Service healthcare travel costs if their earnings for the most recent assessment period are below prescribed thresholds. A claimant would be entitled to claim help with their NHS healthcare travel costs if their earnings during that period were:- £435 or less;- £935 or less if their Universal Credit includes an element for either:- a child; or- limited capability for work. The ‘most recent assessment period’ means the assessment period that ended immediately before the date on which a claimant claimed help with their NHS healthcare travel costs. The period runs for a calendar month. Where claimants claim Universal Credit as a couple, the earnings threshold that applies is either the earnings of the single claimant or the joint claimants’ combined income. In addition, where claimants who are in receipt of an element for either a child or limited capacity for work, are responsible for a child, or a young person who is aged over 16 and under 19 who is receiving education or are in a traineeship, those children and young persons will be entitled to claim help with their NHS healthcare travel costs. Individuals aged 18 who are not receiving education and are universal credit claimants in their own right will be entitled to this benefit. The Department has no current plans to change these arrangements, but will keep the earnings thresholds under review on an annual basis.

Pneumonia: Accident and Emergency Departments

Diana Johnson: To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what estimate his Department has made of the average cost to the NHS of an emergency admission for pneumonia.

Mr Philip Dunne: The estimated average cost of a non-elective admission for the various types of pneumonia for 2015-16 is £1,898. The data source for this is reference costs and 2015-16 is the most recently available data. This data include the costs of any excess bed days.

Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease: Accident and Emergency Departments

Diana Johnson: To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what estimate his Department has made of the average cost to the NHS of an emergency admission for chronic obstructive pulmonary disease.

Mr Philip Dunne: The information is not available in the format requested. However, the estimated average cost of a non-elective admission for Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease or bronchitis for 2015-16 is £1,244. The data source for this is reference costs and 2015-16 is the most recently available data. This includes the costs of any excess bed days.

NHS Trusts: Vending Machines

Catherine West: To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what steps his Department has taken to ensure that sugary snacks are no longer on offer in vending machines in NHS Trust hospitals.

Steve Brine: National Health Service hospitals are required to meet the Government Buying Standards for Food and Catering Services through the NHS Standard Contract, and are required to develop and maintain a food and drink strategy which focuses on healthier eating across the whole hospital community. NHS England is also taking action on sugar reduction including a voluntary scheme to reduce the sales of sugar sweetened beverages to 10% or less of drinks sales for the whole month of March 2018. Should this prove ineffective, it will ban sales of sugar sweetened beverages from 1 July 2018.

Leukaemia: Drugs

Alec Shelbrooke: To ask the Secretary of State for Health, for what reasons ibrutinib is not prescribed on the NHS as a treatment for chronic lymphocytic leukaemia.

Steve Brine: The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) published technology appraisal guidance in January 2017 that recommends ibrutinib for the treatment of chronic lymphocytic leukaemia and untreated chronic lymphocytic leukaemia with 17p deletion or TP53 mutation. Ibrutinib is routinely available to National Health Service patients for these indications in line with NICE’s recommendations if a patient’s doctor considers it to be the most appropriate treatment option. NICE has not been able to make a recommendation on the use of ibrutinib for use in the treatment of other patients with chronic lymphocytic leukaemia because no evidence submission was received from the product’s manufacturer. Ibrutinib is not therefore routinely commissioned for NHS patients for these other indications. NICE will review this decision if the company decides to make an evidence submission.

NHS: Computer Software

Jon Trickett: To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what estimate he has made of the cost to the NHS of removing unpatched, unsupported or out of date software and hardware.

Jackie Doyle-Price: Whilst it is not possible to give a price per unit for the removal of unpatched, unsupported or out of date software and hardware, work is underway to determine the fastest and most cost effective way to move the National Health Service off unsupported operating systems. The Department has invested £21 million to address key infrastructure vulnerabilities in major trauma centres and ambulance trusts which are being identified through on site assessments. The focus of the investment is on reducing the use of unsupported platforms and browsers, targeting capital funding to increase the cyber resilience of major trauma centres as an immediate priority. Through the £21 million allocated, local organisations should be aiming to have isolated, moved away from or be actively managing any unsupported systems by April 2018. Typical areas of spending approved include updating firewalls, network infrastructure and transitioning from outdated hardware and operating systems to enable improved resilience.

Tomography: Leasing

Melanie Onn: To ask the Secretary of State for Health, how much each NHS trust has spent on rental payments for mobile CT scanners in each of the last five years.

Melanie Onn: To ask the Secretary of State for Health, how much the NHS has spent on rental payments for mobile CT scanners in each of the last five years.

Mr Philip Dunne: This information is not collated centrally.

NHS Trusts: Finance

Catherine West: To ask the Secretary of State for Health, how many hospital trusts in (a) England, (b) Wales, (c) Northern Ireland and (d) Scotland have recorded budget deficits in each of the last five years.

Mr Philip Dunne: For the spending outturns of National Health Service hospital trusts in England for the past five years, I refer the hon. Member to the answer I gave to the hon. Member for Ellesmere Port and Neston on 12 October 2017 to Question 105323. The Department does not hold records on the spending outturns for trusts in Wales, Northern Ireland or Scotland. These are matters for the devolved administrations.

Chronic Illnesses: Prescription Drugs

Steve McCabe: To ask the Secretary of State for Health, with reference to the proposals contained in the NHS England consultation entitled, Items which should not be routinely prescribed in primary care: A Consultation on guidance of CCGs, what assessment his Department has made of the potential effect of those proposals on patients with (a) inflammatory bowel disease and (b) a long-term condition.

Steve McCabe: To ask the Secretary of State for Health, with reference to the proposals contained in the NHS England consultation entitled, Items which should not be routinely prescribed in primary care: A Consultation on guidance of CCGs, what assessment his Department has made of the potential effect of those proposals on (a) the management of urgent care services and (b) the number of hospital admissions.

Steve McCabe: To ask the Secretary of State for Health, with reference to the proposals contained in the NHS England consultation entitled, Items which should not be routinely prescribed in primary care: A Consultation on guidance of CCGs, what assessment his Department has made of the potential effect of those proposals on access to medications for (a) children, (b) older people and (c) other vulnerable people.

Steve McCabe: To ask the Secretary of State for Health, with reference to the proposals contained in the NHS England consultation entitled, Items which should not be routinely prescribed in primary care: A Consultation on guidance of CCGs, what assessment his Department has made of the potential effect of those proposals on patients with a long-term condition who have already purchased a prescription prepayment certificate.

Steve McCabe: To ask the Secretary of State for Health, with reference to the proposals contained in the NHS England consultation entitled, Items which should not be routinely prescribed in primary care: A Consultation on guidance of CCGs, what assessment his Department has made of the potential effect of those proposals on the medicine-taking behaviour of patients who rely on regular and multiple medications to prevent symptoms of long-term conditions.

Steve Brine: NHS England’s consultation on draft guidance for clinical commissioning groups on a range of items that should not routinely be prescribed in primary care ended on 21 October. The draft guidance seeks to ensure that the National Health Service is able to secure best value from its use of medicines and therefore focuses on areas of prescribing that have been found to be ineffective or where there are more cost effective alternatives. A full Equality Impact Assessment was published alongside the draft guidance and a further Assessment will be published when final guidance is produced. We would not want to pre-empt any outcome following NHS England’s analysis of the responses it has received. However, we are assured that as part of issuing the final guidance, careful consideration will be given by NHS England to the responses to the consultation, both to ensure that particular groups of people are not disproportionately affected and that principles of best practice on clinical prescribing are adhered to.

Accident and Emergency Departments: Children and Young people

Dr Paul Williams: To ask the Secretary of State for Health, how many patients aged (a) under one, (b) between one and four, (c) between five and nine, (d) between 10 and 14, (e) between 15 and 19 and (f) between 20 and 24 were admitted to hospital through accident and emergency departments with a diagnosis of bronchiolitis in each month in the last six financial years.

Mr Philip Dunne: The information is not collected in the format requested.

Women and Equalities

Government Equalities Office: Brexit

Seema Malhotra: To ask the Minister for Women and Equalities, whether the Government Equalities Office was consulted by the Department for Exiting the European Union on the economic impact assessments conducted for the UK leaving the EU.

Mr Robert Goodwill: The government is carrying out an ongoing programme of comprehensive analytical work that will inform our negotiating position with the EU, to define our deep and special partnership with the EU and inform our understanding of how EU exit will affect the UK’s domestic policies and frameworks.The Government Equalities Office is working with officials across government, in close coordination with the Department for Exiting the European Union, to ensure the delivery of a holistic programme of analysis across government.

Equality and Human Rights Commission

Philip Davies: To ask the Minister for Women and Equalities, when she was first made aware of proposals by the Equality and Human Rights Commissioner to abolish the position of Disability Commissioner.

Nick Gibb: The position of ‘Disability Commissioner’ was not a statutory one, and there was no requirement for the Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) to put proposals about discontinuing it to Ministers. Following a period of consideration and discussion and the winding up of the statutory Disability Committee on 31 March 2017 under the Equality Act 2006 (Dissolution of the Disability Committee) Order 2014 (SI No.406), the Board of the EHRC decided to abolish the role of ‘Disability Commissioner’ at its meeting on 11 May 2017. We will, however, ensure that disabled people continue to be represented on the EHRC.